It’s early May when a young family out on a forest walk stumble upon a heavily mutilated body. The female corpse is in an eerily good condition and the traces of torture are all too visible.
Inspector Malin Fors immediately draws parallels to the Maria Murvall case: the young woman who was found raped and brutally beaten in the forest several years ago and who has since been lost in a silent trauma at a psychiatric clinic. By coincidence Malin meets a psychologist from St Lars Hospital in Lund who tells her about a similar case, and suddenly Maria appears to be just a small part of a bigger puzzle. But what is it that is so terrible that it can’t be put into words?
Malin, who has long been obsessed with finding out the truth behind Maria's horrific past, is determined to get to the bottom of the case, no matter where it may take her.
On a September day she is called to one of Linköping’s more affluent areas. A married couple have been found dead in their Jacuzzi....
In the first part, The Devil’s Scent, Malin Fors has left Linköping for the swarming metropolis of Bangkok. A city full of scents, colours, sounds and tastes. But also corruption, violence and death.
Malin is on the run....