European Mystery Crime

It's 1978. Ponte, a small community in Northern Italy: peaceful woods, discarded rubbish, a closed-down factory. An unbearably hot summer like many others, wilted flowers and trips to the waterfalls. Elia Furenti is 16, living in a secluded house with his parents, a life so unremarkable that even its moderate unhappiness has been accepted as normal. That is until the day the beautiful, damaged Anna returns to Ponte and firmly propels Elia to the edge of adulthood. But then everything starts to unravel.

Freshly trained detective Johannes "Hannes" Niehaus is brand new to the Criminal Investigation Department. And his partner, unconventional veteran detective Fritz Janssen, isn't the least bit thrilled to train a rookie. When a woman's body washes up on the nearby shores of the Baltic Sea, Hannes gets his first taste of real crime - and a chance to prove himself. Quickly the investigation pulls him and Fritz into a whirlpool of dangerous, decades-old cover-ups.

A woman has been murdered and mutilated in her own home, with her liver cut out and a message left within it. Tasked with leading the case, DI Tudor Manx identifies several suspects, including the victim’s estranged husband. But all trails run cold. Then, another victim dies—and from the modus operandi. It seems that North Wales Police are dealing with a serial killer. But who would target the inhabitants of such a peaceful island?

When London Rose, 33, is proposed to by her longtime boyfriend, she realizes she is facing a stable, predictable, pre-determined (and passionless) life. She freaks out and runs the other way - accepting instead a job across the Atlantic, as a tour-guide on a high-end European cruise line that travels through a country a day. London is searching for a more romantic, unscripted, and exciting life that she feels sure exists out there somewhere.

When the body of a child is found in Paris, Interpol involvement is resented by Inspector Le Fur - a proud French man who believes that the inquiry should be carried out on French soil. However, when Jobin explains the case's history to him. Le Fur is more accepting of the way the inquiry progresses. With child trafficking becoming more and more common, Interpol are involved in the case. With victims under the age of nine years old, concern is mounting as the killer leaves his calling card.

"Don Blas s'avançait lentement dans la rue d'Alcolote, regardant de côté et d'autre les maisons avec ses yeux de lynx. Comme il passait devant l'église on sonna une messe ; il se précipita de cheval plutôt qu'il n'en descendit, et on le vit s'agenouiller auprès de l'autel. Quatre de ses gendarmes se mirent à genoux autour de sa chaise ; ils le regardèrent, il n'y avait déjà plus de dévotion dans ses yeux. Son œil sinistre était fixé sur un jeune homme d'une tournure fort distinguée qui priait dévotement à quelques pas de lui."