A local Berlin doctor calls the police
from his wife's grave, horrified to see a grave with his own name dug
out next to hers, with the date of death on it – marked for the
next day! The dispatcher advises the man to head into the station,
but he never makes it . . . . Other murders follow, and Detective
Jan Tommen is assigned the case. But the serial killer always seems
to be just one step ahead of him. It becomes personal when one of
the grave markers predicts the murders of one of Jan's friends. Can
he outwit the murderer, and find his friend, before it's too late?
This novel was translated from the
original German. The story is suspenseful and generally fast moving.
There were a handful of slower spots, but overall the pace was a
good one. It was an interesting twist having the murderer leave
grave markers giving the planned date of each victim's demise. There
is a previous title in this series, called “Until the Debt is
Paid”. There were some references to the detective's traumatic
experience during his previous case, but it might have been easier to
understand the character if I had read that first book before this
one. I felt he was underdeveloped. Detective Tommen had a network
of clever friends to assist him in solving the case. I felt the team
was well-rounded, even though not much was revealed about the
individual characters. It would have been more engaging to learn
more about their back stories.
So in short, while I enjoyed this
novel, I felt like something was lacking a little.
* I received a free copy of this book
in exchange for an honest review. *
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