An unmissable hospital appointment is looming for Inspector Van Veeteren, when a corpse is found rolled in a rotting carpet by a young child playing in a local beauty spot. Missing head and limbs,the torso is too badly decomposed for forensic identification - bar one crucial detail...

Circumstantial evidence soon points to a local man, a double murderer who disappeared nine months before, shortly after released on parole; a local hero, who turned monster after being convicted of killing two women over a span of three decades.

An unmissable hospital appointment is looming for Inspector Van Veeteren, when a corpse is found rolled in a rotting carpet by a young child playing in a local beauty spot. Missing head and limbs,the torso is too badly decomposed for forensic identification - bar one crucial detail...

Circumstantial evidence soon points to a local man, a double murderer who disappeared nine months before, shortly after released on parole; a local hero, who turned monster after being convicted of killing two women over a span of three decades.

Recuperating after an operation, Van Veeteren is nevertheless directing investigations from his hospital bed, for he is convinced that only the innocence of this new victim can be the motive for his murder. But is he on the wrong track completely?