Psychiatric Hospital in Gaustad, Oslo. At dawn after a night of bitter cold, the body of a patient is found strangled to death in his cell, his mouth open in a silent scream. Rushed to the scene, the disconcerting inspector Sarah Geringen immediately senses that this case will be unlike any other…

The mysteries pile up: why does the victim have a scar in the form of the number 488 on his forehead? What do the indecipherable drawings on the walls of his cell signify? Why does the hospital staff seem so uncomfortable with the identity of this man who had been interned in the Gaustad Hospital for over thirty years?

For Sarah it is the beginning of a terrifying investigation that will send her from London to Ascension Island, from the mines of Minnesota to the heights of ancient Nice. Subjected to a relentless countdown, Sara’s destiny will be linked to that of a French investigative journalist, Christopher, and she will discover, while digging up CIA records, a staggering truth about one of the questions that haunts each and every one of us: life after death…

The response, buried in top secret laboratories, might just be more frightening than the question!

A fascinating thriller of rare complexity, inspired by real discoveries and events, that addresses the folly of man and the danger of misguided science transformed into a lethal weapon.