This is the first novel about Lena Peters a young criminal psychologist who has been asked to help profile and catch a serial killer in Berlin. His modus operandi is to mutilate each victim by removing a particular part of her anatomy, lips, nose, eyes, but even worse he uses a chemical on his victims which means they cannot move but are able to feel the excruciating pain.
Lena herself is a complicated character, she is revolted by the sight and smell of blood and we subsequently discover that her parents had burnt to death in a car crash with Lena and her twin sister Tamara crushed in the back seat.
Tamara is one of the characters that reoccur throughout the book, she has completely gone off the rails taking drugs and also has an 8 year old daughter who seems to be conveniently looked after by friends when Tamara turns up on Lena’s doorstep with a baby boy. One of the other main characters is Wulf Belling, a police officer who has been pushed into early retirement, he has his own family problems but is desperate to return to his job and helps Lena with the search for the murderer. The previous psychologist working on the case, Cornelia Dobelli, has mysteriously disappeared together with her files and Lena suspects this has something to do with her current employer Volker Drescher.
The book moves at a smart pace, short chapters written from various character viewpoints including the murderer which is interesting as it gives some insight into why he is doing these crimes. However I always had the feeling that the author was holding some information back on all the characters and all the background stories and this becomes obvious at the end when although this murder is solved there is an obvious follow up to come when Lena receives a particular gift.
I will definitely be looking out for the next book in this series and hope it will provide more background surrounding the main characters. I feel the author has a lot more to tell us and I for one will buy another of her series