It is 1932 and John Madden, former Scotland Yard Inspector, is now a farmer in the peaceful Surrey countryside. However his peace is about to be shattered, for when a young girl goes missing, it is he who discovers her disfigured body hidden in a wood. Disturbed by what he has seen he is convinced the killer has struck before . . .

When a second body is found, Madden's instinct is proved right - there is a multiple killer at large. Allying himself with his old colleagues, and against the wishes of his anxious wife, he immerses himself in one more case, and his insights into the personality of the man they are seeking are soon borne out.

Self-taught in a world of secret agents, this psychopath is a master of reinvention who has been covering his tracks for many years. The investigation leads to Germany, where the Nazis are on the brink of power. The killer has so far eluded the German police. And the mutilated bodies he has left in his wake are just a shocking foretaste of the horrors to come . . .

'If only every golden age crime novel could be as good as this' Independent on Sunday

`Rennie Airth has an emotional and sensual precision' Times Literary Supplement