In Bangkok, the Norwegian ambassador is found dead in a seedy hotel room. The official story needs to stay clean. The truth will not.
Detective Harry Hole is sent in to shut the case fast and keep it quiet. No headlines. No scandal. No loose ends. But the city does not cooperate. Heat presses in. Neon hides decay. Everyone smiles while they measure your price.
Harry follows the trail from embassy corridors to backstreet bars, from polite handshakes to paid silence. Each answer opens a deeper problem. A web of corruption, secrets, and debts that reaches far past the victim. The killer is close. The motive is older than the crime.
As pressure mounts from both governments and criminals, Harry realizes the case is not about one death. It is about what powerful people fear becoming public.
In a city where truth gets buried fast, Harry has one job. Dig it up before it buries him.
