Three children are massacred in their beds. The crushed corpse of their mother is discovered in a dockside warehouse. Hanno Stiffeniis, a Prussian magistrate, goes to investigate, but everything begins to unwind. Serge Lavedrine, a criminologist attached to the invading French army, steps in to resolve the mystery, and Stiffeniis is packed off to collect the husband from a remote fortress on the Russian border. But the husband, Bruno Gottewald, is dead and buried - killed while out on field manoeuvres.
In less than a week the entire Gottewald family has been wiped off the face of the earth. A tragic coincidence? Or are the French using the massacre to expand their power? Working independently of each other, Lavedrine and Stiffeniis seek to discovers how the crime was committed and the motive behind the massacre. But only Hanno's wife, Helena, knows what truly happened in that cottage in the woods...
Michael Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio write together as Michael Gregorio. Daniela teaches philosophy; Michael is interested in the history of photography. They live in Spoleto, a small town in central Italy.
They have created a series of crime novels whose central charater is the Prussian magistrate, Hanno Stiffeniis. The series includes Critique of Criminal Reason, Days of Atonement, A Visible Darkness and Unholy Awakening.
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