Unholy Awakening

A female corpse is found in the town of Lotingen.
The girl’s neck has been ripped open, all the blood drained from the body.
Hanno Stiffeniis hastens to investigate a case more terrifying than murder.
Would any human being kill in such a gruesome fashion?

Emma Rimmele has come to Lotingen to bury her mother. A beautiful woman travelling with a coffin in her baggage, Emma attracts gossip like a magnet. When a corpse is discovered near the house where she is living, speculation about the mysterious stranger reaches fever pitch. When two more ravaged bodies are found, fingers point accusingly in her direction. One word is heard on every tongue. Vampire.

Magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis defends Emma Rimmele against the hideous accusation. Has he fallen under the vampire’s spell, as his neighbours believe? News arrives from a nearby town. A French officer’s throat has been ripped out. Another French soldier has bled to death. The horror of Lotingen is happening elsewhere. Colonel Lavedrine, a criminologist in the Grand Armée, is ordered to collaborate with Hanno Stiffeniis. Two years earlier, they had worked together to solve a murder ( Days of Atonement , 2007), despite fierce clashes of character and opinion.

Once again, each man is drawn into the forbidden world of the other. Stiffeniis takes his chance among French soldiers vying for power, while Lavedrine must tread dark graveyard paths in pursuit of a curse which has plagued Prussia for centuries.

They are seeking a cold-blooded killer.

A killer thirsting for warm blood from a pulsing vein ...