Hospitals are supposed to be places of healing. But in the coronary care unit at one of Copenhagen's leading medical centers, a nurse fills a syringe with an overdose of heart medication and stealthily enters the room of an older male patient.

Six days earlier, a paperboy on his route in central Copenhagen stumbles upon a macabre find: the naked body of a dead woman, lying in a fountain with arms marked with small incisions. Cause of death? Exsanguination--the draining of all the blood in her body.

Copenhagen investigator Jeppe K rner, recovering from a painful divorce and in the throes of a new relationship, takes on the case. His partner, Anette Werner, now on maternity leave after an unexpected pregnancy, is restless at home with a demanding newborn and an equally demanding husband. While Jeppe pounds the streets looking for answers, Anette decides to do a little freelance sleuthing. But operating on her own exposes her to dangers she can't even begin to fathom.

As the "thrillingly nerve-racking" (Shelf Awareness) investigation ventures into dark corners, it uncovers the shockingly depraved greed that festers beneath the surface of caregiving institutions--and what Jeppe and Anette discover will turn their blood as cold as ice...

Engberg, Katrine