In Richmond, Virginia, the shockingly flayed corpse of the
curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum is discovered in his
office; while in Trondheim, Norway, a library archivist's
similarly flayed body is found inside a locked vault. As
Richmond homicide detective Felicia Stone and Trondheim
police inspector Odd Singsaker join forces in their
comparable investigations, they find both cases are closely
connected to The Book of John, a 16th-century journal
believed to have been written by a serial killer in Norway.
The manuscript is known as a palimpsest, a piece of writing
material on which the original writing has been effaced to
make room for later writing, but of which traces of the
earlier writing remains. And the material used to bind the
books was human skin. As more clues are uncovered in these
two unique, gruesome killings, even more questions arise.
Felicia and Odd make a good team as the killer is finally
brought to justice.
WHERE MONSTERS DWELL was a bestseller in Norway for debut
author Jorgen Brekke, and it's obvious why. With a
compelling cast of characters and the clever use of complex
plot devices, Brekke gives readers an extraordinary murder
mystery that's impossible to put down.
A murder at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond,
Virginia, bears a close resemblance to one in Trondheim,
Norway. The corpse of the museum curator in Virginia is
found flayed in his office by the cleaning staff; the corpse
of an archivist at the library in Norway, is found inside a
locked vault used to store delicate and rare books. Richmond
homicide detective Felicia Stone and Trondheim police
inspector Odd Singsaker find themselves working on similar
murder cases, committed the same way, but half a world away.
And both murders are somehow connected to a sixteenth
century palimpsest book-The Book of John-which appears to be
a journal of a serial murderer back in 1529 Norway, a book
bound in human skin.