In murder investigations, it pays to keep things simple: motive, method, opportunity. But the case in front of Detective Fabian Risk is a nightmare. A killer who strikes out of nowhere. No apparent motive. No consistent method. Victims are tortured, strangled, burned, dismembered - each grisly killing carried out with savage precision, as if following the rules of a hellish game.

Fear and chaos have spread through the seaside town of Helsingborg. While Fabian Risk hunts the killer, his life is falling apart: a son on the run from the law; a daughter gravely injured; a colleague with dark secrets of his own. But there's no turning back now. The game of death is on, and Fabian Risk must play to win.

This explosive thriller from Scandinavia's most inventive storyteller concludes the epic events of Motive X.

'Atmospheric and complicated ... with great cop characters and some imaginatively grisly perps' Sunday Times (star pick)

'More gripping than Jo Nesbo, blacker than Stieg Larsson and more bleakly human than Henning Mankell' Tony Parsons

'Epic in scale and ambition' Daily Mail

'An intense journey, with an intricate plot ... Ahnhem has mastered atmosphere, pacing and intrigue' Crime Review

'Masterly plotting, grisly murders and chilling suspense: Stefan Ahnhem keeps the threads of this complex, two-country narrative pulled tense' Better Reading