Publisher's Synopsis
One frozen January morning, Inspector Wallander responds to a seemingly routine call out. But when he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body. The woman supplies Wallander with his only clue: the perpetrators may have been foreign. When this is leaked to the press, it unleashes racial hatred. With winter tightening and his activities being monitored by a tough-minded district attorney, Wallander must forget his own troubles and throw himself into a battle against time and against mounting xenophobia.
