In the first part, The Devil’s Scent, Malin Fors has left Linköping for the swarming metropolis of Bangkok. A city full of scents, colours, sounds and tastes. But also corruption, violence and death.
Malin is on the run. An unsolved case and a personal crisis have thrown her into the kind of despair that can only be cured by copious amounts of alcohol and she is fast hitting rock bottom. As a last solution, she has been taken off duty and offered a temporary position as a liaison officer in Bangkok.
She chooses a solitary existence but the loneliness is hard to cope with and there are temptations everywhere. As usual, her work becomes her salvation and her hunting instinct is triggered by the discovery of a murdered Swedish woman. Who was she? Why was she murdered in such a grisly way? And how was she connected to the Thai man who becomes the next victim?
At the same time as Malin is fighting her demons she is pulled into an investigation that baffles both the Swedish and the Thai police. She has to delve deep into the past in order to find the answers concerning the ruthless killer who is after retribution and revenge.
It is the hottest summer anyone can recall and Linköping is plagued by a sweltering heatwave and raging forest fires.
A teenage girl is found naked and bleeding in a city park, without any recollection of what has happened. A grisly discovery is made...
Malin Fors is unable to move. The forest still lies dark in the early September morning, there is a smell of fire in the air coming from an industrial estate on the outskirts of town and on the ground in front of her is the burnt...
It is Autumn in Linkoping and the heavens have opened, but not even these biblical rains can wash away the blood of crimes past and present. Then the brutally-stabbed body of self-made Internet billionaire Jerry Petersson is discovered...