2005 "First Edition: August 2005" stated on copyright page; Warner Books publishers, New York; hardbound; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket very good.
 
Description -
The New York Times bestselling "master of mystery" , Faye Kellerman delivers a riveting novel set in 1920s Munich, a war-wounded city rocked by political agitation and stalked by a nameless, barbaric butcher (Cleveland Plain Dealer).

Lustmord - the joy of murder. The terrifying concept seems apt for the brutal slaying of a beautiful young society wife dumped in the vast English Garden. Homicide inspector Axel Berg is horrified by the crime...and disturbed by the artful arrangement of the victim's clothes and hair - a madman's portrait of death.

Berg's superiors demand quick answers and a quick arrest: a vagrant, the woman's husband, anyone who can be demonized will do. When a second body is discovered, the city erupts into panic, the unrest fomented by the wild-eyed, hate-mongering Austrian Adolf Hitler and his Brownshirt party of young thugs.

Berg can trust no one as he relentlessly hunts a ruthless killer, dodging faceless enemies and back-alley intrigue, struggling to bring a fiend to justice before the country - and his life - veer straight into darkness.