A gripping tale of assassination and espionage, conspiracy and Nazis on the run.

In 1942, a field medic rescues a soldier from a burning tank and tends his wounds. The soldier’s name is Karl Günther Schmidt, a conscript from Stuttgart, and the field medic is Doctor Josef Mengele. The two men meet again after the war, when they both relocate to Argentina. In 1977 in Reykjavik, a young police detective, Hedinn Vernhardsson, is tasked with investigating a cold-blooded murder of a taxi driver, shot in the back of the head sitting in his car. The victim was a confirmed Nazi collaborator in Copenhagen during the war. The tenant of the dead man’s spare room turns out to be one Karl Günther Schmidt. Soon Detective Vernhardsson finds himself entangled in something much larger than one man’s murder, a grand international conspiracy with global repercussions.

Nominated for The Blood Drop – The Icelandic Crime Fiction Award 2023

**** ½ Four and a half stars
“A book that belongs in the spotlight … The description of the main characters and their mindset is brilliant.”
SG, MORGUNBLADID DAILY

**** ½ Four and a half stars
“Skúli solidifies his position as one of the top authors in Icelandic thriller fiction.“
DV.IS

“It’s evident that Skúli Sigurðsson, the author of ‘The Man from Sao Paulo’, takes pleasure in his writing, and this enjoyment is effectively conveyed to the reader.”
HEIMILDIN WEEKLY

“Very interesting and I feel it’s a successful effort … It’s artistically done, and personally, I just couldn’t put the book down! … I’m very pleased; it’s an excellent thriller.”
IIA, KILJAN / Icelandic National Broadcasting Service