The morning after a group psychotherapy session in a Warsaw monastery, Henry Talek is found dead, a roasting spit stuck in one eye. Public prosecutor Teodor Szacki, world-weary, suffering from bureaucratic exhaustion and marital ennui, feels that life has passed him by. But this case changes everything. Because of it he meets Monika Grzelka, a young journalist whose charms prove difficult to resist, and he discovers the frightening power of certain esoteric therapeutic methods. The shocking videos of the sessions lead him to an array of possible scenarios. Could one of the patients have become so absorbed by his therapy role-playing that he murdered Telak? Szacki’s investigation leads him to an earlier murder, before the fall of Communism. And why is the Secret Police suddenly taking an interest in all this? As Szacki uncovers each piece of the puzzle, facts emerge that he’d be better off not knowing, for his own safety.

It is spring 2009, and prosecutor Szacki is no longer working in Warsaw—he has said goodbye to his family and to his career in the capital and moved to Sandomierz, a picturesque town full of churches and museums. Hoping to start a "brave new life," Szacki instead finds himself investigating a strange murder case in surroundings both alien and unfriendly. The victim is found brutally murdered, her body drained of blood. The killing bears the hallmarks of legendary Jewish ritual slaughter, prompting a wave of anti-Semitic paranoia in the town, where everyone knows everyone. The murdered woman's husband is bereft, but when Szacki discovers that she had a lover, the husband becomes the prime suspect. Before there's time to arrest him, he is found murdered in similar circumstances. In his investigation Szacki must wrestle with the painful tangle of Polish–Jewish relations and something that happened more than sixty years earlier.

ポーランド発、完徹必至の傑作ミステリ上陸ポーランド北部オルシュティン市の工事現場で、白骨化した遺体が見つかった。現場に向かった検察官テオドル・シャツキは、現場が病院に続く地下の防空壕だったことから、戦時中のドイツ人の遺体と考えていた。ところが検死の結果、遺体の男は10日前には生きていたことが判明、この短期間で白骨化することはあり得ないという。さらに調査を続けると、複数の人間の骨が入り交じっていた。やがてこの男は、大量の顆粒の配水管洗浄剤に生きたまま埋められて死んだことがわかる。そして真相に手が届こうとした時、シャツキ自身の身に思いもよらぬ事件が……。ポーランド本国でベストセラーとなり、欧米では「ポーランドのP・ルメートル」と大絶賛された本邦初登場の作家による、大傑作ミステリ!

マジか。最後の一行であなたは必ず呟く!混迷を極めた白骨遺体の身元確認。検察官シャツキが捜査すればするほど、事件は不可解な様相を帯びていく。そしてやっと真相に手が届こうとしたとき、シャツキ自身の身に思いもよらぬ事件が起こる。刻々と時間が過ぎていくなか、彼はある予測のもと、一か八かの勝負に出るがーー。先が全く読めないストーリー展開に、ページをめくる手が止まらなくなり……「マジか」。最後の一行を読み終えた時、あなたは必ずそう呟く!ポーランドから上陸した傑作ミステリ、堂々の完結。

Bestselling Polish crime by award-winning author Zygmunt Miloszewski. All eyes are on famous prosecutor Teodor Szacki when he investigates a skeleton discovered at a construction site in the idyllic Polish city of Olsztyn. Old bones come as no shock to anyone in this part of Poland, but it turns out these remains are fresh, the flesh chemically removed. Szacki questions the dead man’s wife, only to be left with a suspicion she’s hiding something. Then another victim surfaces—a violent husband, alive but maimed—giving rise to a theory: someone’s targeting domestic abusers. And as new clues bring the murderer closer to those Szacki holds dear, he begins to understand the terrible rage that drives people to murder. From acclaimed Polish crime writer Zygmunt Miloszewski comes a gritty, atmospheric page-turner that poses the question, what drives a sane man to kill?