A gripping and atmospheric Black Forest Investigation featuring Detective Inspector Louise Boni.

In a Berlin hotel a man is beaten up, but it's more than a random assault and the attacker escapes undetected. When the trail leads to Freiburg, Chief Inspector Louise Boni is sent to investigate.

It's a complex case, a professional job. The victim is a secret service informer, the only witness knows more than she's saying, and the intelligence service is hovering in the background, refusing to cooperate. Industrial espionage appears to be at play, focused on the booming solar-energy sector.

Taut writing and pacy events Sunday Times

Boni's investigation is repeatedly obstructed, and again she has to rip up the police handbook in her attempt to find out how the different threads of the web tie together. But by the time she discovers the truth, it's already too late for one of those involved . . .

Bottini is a terrific storyteller Sunday Express

The fifth in the Black Forest Investigations featuring Louise Boni - by the five-time winner of the German Crime Fiction Award

Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch