In 1988, 20-year-old Sandra Ramirez is savagely kicked to death and left under an old oak tree in Santander, Spain. She’d written a short story from the point of view of a stray dog that dies under the same oak tree, and the murder remains unsolved two decades later. In 2008, master detective Hans Rekke and police constable Micaela Vargas team up on the cold case, eventually putting them both in great danger. Rekke, a psychologist and former concert pianist, has extraordinary deductive powers that bring Sherlock Holmes to mind. Two people had kicked Ramirez, he concludes, one with much more force and a deep hatred of women. Rekke suggests they might be looking for a serial killer. Indeed, similar unsolved cases have shown up in other countries, and the victims are intellectual women. Victims also have strange symbols carved into their bodies as though they are cattle. Now the investigators believe the killings will continue. Meanwhile, two men, Pompe and Dag, have strange conversations about women. The dominant Pompe calls himself a sadist and explains to the impressionable Dag that all men are sadists. “Admit it,” he says, “you’ve dreamed of seeing them suffer.” They are obvious suspects, but they’re not alone. And during the investigation, Vargas suffers a critical medical emergency that merely slows her down. When Rekke visits her in the hospital he sees another patient, a weeping girl, and notes that she’s a long-distance runner. “I can hear it in your breathing,” he explains. Such uncanny observations permeate the story and make him an unusually interesting protagonist. Vargas boards in his house, but they aren’t romantically involved. She does have a dubious love life, though, which leads to unexpected trouble. The threats continue to an edge-of-your-seat climax. Rekke and Vargas complement each other well, with his unique talent and her down-to-earth competence. A neat final twist foreshadows the next novel in the series.