Ghosts of Altona

''One of the most interesting detectives around'' The Times

Fabel is back: scarred by an experience that has changed him for ever and haunted by his past, he investigates the biggest case of his career.

As head of the Polizei Hamburg''s Murder Commission, Jan Fabel is used to dealing with the dead. But when a routine inquiry turns violent and takes him to the brink of his own death, he emerges a changed man. Fast forward two years, and Fabel''s first case at the Murder Commission comes back to haunt him.

Monika Krone''s body is found at last, fifteen years after she went missing. Monika - ethereally beautiful, intelligent, cruel - was the centre of a group of students obsessed with the gothic. Fabel re-opens the case. What happened that night, when Monika left a party and disappeared into thin air?

When men involved with Monika start turning up dead, Fabel realizes he is looking for a killer with both a hunger for revenge and a taste for the gothic. What he doesn''t know is that someone has been aiding and grooming a deranged escapee as his own, personal tool for revenge.

The fifth in a unique and memorable crime series, The Ghosts of Altona is gritty, fast-paced, mordantly funny and totally compelling.

Praise for award-winning writer Craig Russell:

''Another brilliantly sharp, witty and tough take on a hard city at a hard time . . . a former cop, Russell is Britain''s rising crime-writing star'' Daily Mirror

''Through his humorous lens, time and place become razor-sharp ... The lightness of touch is a breath of fresh air in this most crowded of genres . . . This is tartan neo-noir at its most entertaining'' Sunday Herald