Chief Inspector “Karre” Karrenberg heads up a homicide squad in Essen Germany. It's only a small team, including Viktoria von Flurstenfeld. There is subtle sexual tension between the pair but most of Karre's thinking is about his daughter Hanna who is in a coma in hospitable following a car accident that killed his ex-wife Sandra. Was it an accident or was there something more sinister going on? This is a overarching story line to his life.

But as a homicide detective he must concentrate on the present and the death of a woman who's body was found at the bottom of a set of stairs at the back of a night club.

There might be something lost in translation here but it felt a bit disjointed and didn't flow along nicely. Plus there is the annoying habit of people about to say something important and being interrupted. It happens all the time and, combined with simply not saying things out loud, I found these people frustrating. I would not like to work with Karre as he keeps too much to himself and picks the completely wrong time to reveal what he knows and what his intentions are. It's good to read a book with a different setting and I might read more from the series but stories that have a huge overarching story line, the death of his ex-wife, doesn't really appeal to me.