A corpse in the moor. A stolen body. A killer playing a twisted game. Forensic pathologist Julia Schwarz is efficient, brilliant, and emotionally impenetrable—traits that have earned her the nickname the Ice Lady. In the sterile halls of her institute, she forces the dead to give up their secrets, clinging to the cold logic of science to keep the demons of her traumatic past at bay. When Detective Florian Kessler calls her to a grim discovery in the desolate moorlands, it seems like a clear-cut case. But then the unthinkable happens: he body recovered from the moor vanishes during transport to Julia’s institute. Stolen. Gone without a trace. Driven by an instinct she can’t ignore, Julia returns to the moor—and uncovers a second, even more gruesome victim high in the trees. The only link between the dead girls is a bizarre tattoo on their stomachs: a clue pointing to a serial killer with a ritualistic agenda. But as Julia races to decode its meaning, she doesn’t realize she’s already crossed a deadly line. Now the darkness is coming for her—inside the very halls she once believed were safe. The gripping first installment in the international bestselling Julia Schwarz series.