Given no choice in investigating two murders, Detective Harry Hole reluctantly teams up with Tom Waaler who Harry suspects of running an arms smuggling gang and of having murdered his partner. A common thread of riddles connects the cases - A riddle of fives: five-pointed stars, five fingers on the hand, and every fifth day a new victim to be counted. Harry is determined to prove that his hunch about Waaler is right, and he begins to wonder whether...

Determined to prove the innocence of a young man he helped raise, disgraced former cop Harry Hole embarks on an increasingly dangerous investigation linked to Oslo's most virulent street drug.

When the Norwegian ambassador to Thailand is found dead in a Bangkok brothel, Inspector Harry Hole is dispatched from Oslo to help hush up the case. But once he arrives Harry discovers that this case is about much more than one random murder. There is something else, something more pervasive, scrabbling around behind the scenes. Or, put another way, for every cockroach you see in your hotel room, there are hundreds behind the walls. Surrounded by...