Things could not be any better. Josef Maria Stachelmann has at last received his postdoctoral lecturing qualification. He is only waiting for an offer of a chair now. Even Stachelmanns relationship with Anne is undisturbed.
But then shots are fired at Hamburg University, shots that are aimed at Stachelmann. The historian is not injured in the incident, and gradually it dawns on him that the gunman missed his target on purpose. The police find out that a military rifle was used in the attempt, but this remains the only evidence. When a smear campaign against Stachelmann is launched on the internet, he finds himself lost in a labyrinth of fear.
The only thing he understands is: it is all about his work on the Buchenwald concentration camp. Somebody is taking offence at his research. Obviously these feelings are enough motivation to shoot and to kill. When the person strikes again, the victim is a female student. Did she have to die because she had solved the riddle surrounding the mysterious gunman?
Stachelmann has no choice and decides to start the search for the murderer. He uncovers that somebody is living with a lie and begins to realize that the crime can only be solved at Buchenwald, a concentration camp whose history is not by any means over and done with.
In this fascinating thriller, certainties change into questions, suspects become helpers, and friends turn out to be foes. When Stachelmann finally solves his fourth case, he kills a man and makes a decision that will influence his entire life.
