Detective Harry Hole embarrassed the force, and for his sins he’s been reassigned to mundane surveillance tasks. Butwhile monitoring neo-Nazi activities in Oslo, Hole is inadvertently drawn into a mystery with deep roots in Norway’sdark past, when members of the government willinglycollaborated with Nazi Germany. More than sixty years later,this black mark won’t wash away—and disgraced oldsoldiers who once survived a brutal Russian winter arebeing murdered, one by one. Now, with only a stained and guilty conscience to guide him, an angry, alcoholic, error-prone policeman must make his way safely past the trapsand mirrors of a twisted criminal mind. For a conspiracy is taking rapid and hideous shape around Hole . . . and Norway’s darkest hour may be still to come.