A drug dealer is found battered to death in the outskirts of Oslo. A young Dutchman, walking aimlessly in central Oslo covered in blood, is taken into custody but refuses to talk. When he is informed that the woman who discovered the body, Karen Borg, is a lawyer, the young Dutchman demands her as his defender: he will speak to Karen Borg and to her alone.
A couple of days later, Hansa Larsen, a lawyer of the shadiest kind is found shot to death. Very soon, police officers Hakon Sand and Hanne Wilhelmsen establish a link between the two killings. They also find a message in code hidden in the murdered lawyer's apartment.
The reason why the young Dutchman insisted on having Karen Borg as a defender slowly dawns upon them: since she was the one to find and report the body, she is the only Oslo lawyer that cannot be implicated in this business. But the tentacles of this conspiracy reach much higher than a corrupt lawyer and a small-time dealer. There are political movers and shakers in the frame.
Hanne must work against time to uncover the truth - but she is in more danger than she knows. This is the first instalment in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series.