London: MacLehose Press / Quercus, (2008) dj. Hardcover first edition - One of a quartet of novels set in Breslau which in 1933 was a German city on the border of Czechoslovakia. It is now, since World War II, Wroclaw, in Poland. "The mutilated body of a young woman, an aristocrat, is found dead on a train. Scorpions writhe in her slashed stomach - a horrifying image that becomes crucial to the investigation. Inspector Eberhard Mock is called in to deal with the case, and is assigned an assistant, Herbert Anwaldt, an orphan.The investigation leads them deep into the city's dirty underbelly, where corrupt ministers torture confessions from lowly Jews and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and daggers. As they unravel a mystery of ritual killing that dates back to the time of the Crusades, the elderly Mock and the young, fatherless Anwaldt become close. But the dark, occult aspect of this most macabre of cases, coupled with the heavy presence of Germany's secret police proves too much for Anwaldt's sanity. What makes Krajewski's story so uncommonly powerful is the stifling atmosphere he conjures of a city in the grip of the Gestapo." Translated from the Polish by Danusia Stock. 247 pp. ISBN: 1-847242529.