In 1528 a young, travelling Fransiscan monk stays for a short period in Bergen before he goes north. Upon leaving, his luggage contains a large assortment of knives and a piece of untreated hide.
Almost five hundred years later, a flayed corpse appears in a museum in Richmond, Virginia, and another one crops up in a book vault in Trondheim. Both incidents seem to be tied to a strange old text written on parchment, The Book of John.
This is the first novel featuring the American murder investigator Felicia Stone and the Norwegian police inspector Odd Singsaker, who is recovering from cancer. It is a story of dissection, ancient books, gruesome murders and wounds that need time to heal.
Blurb from the international bestselling author Tom Egeland:
"A bull’s eye of a crime novel! Historical mystery meets modern police investigation in this explosion of a debut. Ancient texts, gruesome dissections and bizarre and bloodcurdling murders form the backdrop for this book which is not only entertaining and intensely exciting, but also clever and playful. [...] Jørgen Brekke’s crime debut is nothing less than impressive!"