The New Award-winning International Bestseller By The Author Of The Mountain

Marlene Wegener is on the run.

She has stolen something from her husband, something priceless, irreplaceable.

But she doesn't get very far. When her car veers off a bleak midwinter road she takes refuge in the remote home of Simon Keller, a tough mountain man who lives alone with his demons. Here in her high mountain sanctuary, she begins to rekindle a sense of herself: tough, capable, no longer the trophy on a gangster's arm.

But Herr Wegener does not know how to forgive, and in his rage he makes a pact with the devil. The Trusted Man. He cannot be called off, he cannot be reasoned with and one way or another he will get the job done.

Unless, of course, he's beaten to it . . .

Translated from the Italian by Howard Curtis and Katherine Gregor