It is 1932 and John Madden, former Scotland Yard inspector, is now a farmer in the peaceful Surrey countryside. Peaceful, that is, until he discovers the mutilated body of a small girl, Alice Bridger, hidden in a wood. Uneasy at the direction of police enquiries and convinced the killer has struck before, he quietly begins his own investigation.And it is an investigation that will involve not only Scotland Yard but also the world of secret agentsand the German police. When a second body is found Maddens instinct is proved rightthere is a multiple killer at large, and he has been covering his tracks for a number of years.The investigation leads to Germanywhere the Nazis are on the brink of power. And the mutilated bodies the killer has left in his wake are just a shocking foretaste of the horrors to come.