Fresh from maternity leave Detective Elma finds herself confronted with a complex case when a man is found murdered in a holiday cottage in the depths of the Icelandic countryside - the victim of a frenzied knife attack with a shocking message scrawled on the wall above him. At home with their baby daughter Sævar is finding it hard to let go of work until the chance discovery in a discarded box provides him with a distraction. Could the diary of a young boy detailing the events of a long-ago summer have a bearing on Elma's case? Once again the team at West Iceland CID have to contend with local secrets in the small town of Akranes where someone has a vested interest in preventing the truth from coming to light. And Sævar has secrets of his own that threaten to destroy his and Elma's newfound happiness.

Part of the Forbidden Iceland series.