Set between the icy streets and dark forests of Norway, a heart-stopping story of one man's obsession with his coldest case, by "one of the most brilliantly understated crime novelists writing today" (The Sunday Times, London). Katharina went missing twenty-four years ago. Each year on the anniversary of her disappearance, Chief Inspector William Wisting rereads her files, searching for the answer he could never find; the code he could never solve. And he visits Katharina's husband, Martin Haugen, the brokenhearted man he could never help.

Until now.

This year is different. Another woman is missing under similar circumstances. But so is Katharina's husband. Wisting has to find him, but is he rescuing a dear old friend or playing a deadly game with a killer?

A brilliantly understated crime novel that examines the long-term costs of lying to ourselves and each other through an atmospheric psychological game of cat-and-mouse.