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...

In a run-down industrial town, a drug lord named Hecate has connections with the highest in power, and plans to use them to get his way. Hecate's plot hinges on steadily manipulating Inspector MacBeth, a man already susceptible to violent and paranoid tendencies.