For Commandant Verhoeven life is beautiful: he's happily married, and expectinghis first child with the lovely Irène.But his blissful existence is punctured by a murder so savage that even themost hardened officers on the force are shaken to the core. In the face of theseemingly motiveless horror, only Verhoeven makes the vital connection - thecrime scene resembles one described in a James Ellroy novel too closely forthere to be any coincidence.As the stylised murders continue, Verhoeven traces the crimes' literaryinspirations, and risks his superiors' ire by taking out adverts to inform the killerof his progress.