'Creepy, atmospheric and darkly comic' - C. J. Tudor 'Bakkeid is already big and his work is only going to get bigger and better '- Daily Record Disgraced, damaged former police officer Thorkild Aske has stopped taking his painkillers after his last experience searching for the missing in northern Norway. Wracked by withdrawal and desperate for work, he reluctantly agrees to investigate the disappearance of two schoolgirls for bestselling crime writer Milla Lind - but he soon discovers that Lind's interest in the case is not, as she claims, simply research for her latest novel. When Thorkild discovers that her previous investigator was murdered on the job, no-one will explain why - all he has to go on are files about unrelated cases from all across Norway. Oh, and his ex-wife wants to talk. What could possibly go wrong? By the winner of the Riverton Prize 2021 Praise for the Thorkild Aske series: 'Stephen King has got himself a Norwegian crime heir' - Ekstra Bladet 'Wonderfully creepy' - Daily Mail 'A gripping, atmospheric novel and a first outing for Aske. More are promised - I can't wait' - Saga 'At a stroke, Bakkeid has entered the upper echelons of Norwegian crime writing' - Barry Forshaw

'Wonderfully creepy ... This is a spectacular debut' Daily Mail The first in a new Norwegian crime series by the winner of the Riverton Prize 2021 introducing disgraced ex-Chief Inspector Thorkild Aske, a damaged man with a complicated past Fresh out of prison and a stint in a psychiatric hospital, disgraced ex-policeman Thorkild Aske only wants to lose himself in drugged dreams of his beloved Frei. Wild, unknowable Frei. The woman he loved. The woman he has lost forever. Yet when Frei's young cousin goes missing off the Norwegian coast and Thorkild is called in by the family to help find him, dead or alive, Thorkild cannot refuse. He owes them this. Tormented by his past, Thorkild soon finds himself deep in treacherous waters. He's lost his reputation - will he now lose his life? The second Thorkild Aske mystery, Scatter Her Ashes, is out now

The first in a new Norwegian crime series featuring disgraced ex-Chief Inspector Thorkild Aske, a damaged man with a complicated past

Fresh out of prison and a stint in a psychiatric hospital, disgraced ex-policeman Thorkild Aske only wants to lose himself in drugged dreams of his beloved Frei. Wild, unknowable Frei. The woman he loved. The woman he has lost forever.

Yet when Frei's young cousin goes missing off the Norwegian coast and Thorkild is called in by the family to help find him, dead or alive, Thorkild cannot refuse. He owes them this.

Tormented by his past, Thorkild soon finds himself deep in treacherous waters. He's lost his reputation - will he now lose his life?