Deze serie dompelt lezers onder in de rauwe realiteit van het naoorlogse Duitsland, waar een vastberaden detective duistere zaken aanpakt te midden van de ruïnes van steden als Berlijn en Hamburg. Elke aflevering biedt een meeslepend mysterie, nauwgezet gesitueerd tegen een achtergrond van historische authenticiteit, waarbij een sfeer van wanhoop wordt vermengd met de eerste glimpen van hoop. De protagonist navigeert door verraderlijke onderzoeken terwijl hij de aanhoudende schaduwen van de oorlog onder ogen ziet. Het is meeslepende lectuur voor fans van sfeervolle historische misdaadromans.
The Murderer in Ruins is the first of a trilogy, set in Hamburg, 1947. A murderer is on the loose and policeman Frank Stave, whilst plagued with worry about his missing son, is under increasing pressure to find out why - after the atrocities of World War II - someone still has the stomach for murder.
After a bitterly cold winter of starvation, the bombed city groans under excruciating heat and chief inspector Frank Stave is confronted with a new case. In the ruins of a shipyard, the corpse of a boy is found and Stave's hunt for the killer leads him into the world of wolf children: orphaned children who have fled from the Occupied Eastern Territories and are now united in gangs. When two more bodies are discovered, Stave is under increasing pressure as he struggles to keep his personal life together, too.
Shot down during a routine operation, inspector Frank Stave had moved from the murder commission to combatting the black market that runs rife in post-war Hamburg. There, Stave is confronted with an enigmatic case: in the ruins of the bomb torn city, some women have found works of art from the Weimar period--right next to a corpse whose identity the murder commission seem desperate to conceal. Shortly afterwards, Lieutenant MacDonald is confronted with another problem: mysterious banknotes are popping up on the black market, banknotes whose existence disturbs the secret plans of the Allies. The inspector soon discovers strange parallels between the two cases. The Forger is the stunning conclusion to the Inspector Stave Crime trilogy that will leave you breathless.