Lars Winkler

The first book in the crime series featuring Lars Winkler: loner, dad, former squatter, and drug addict and the most dedicated detective in Copenhagen.A young prostitute is found murdered at the common in Copenhagen. The womans body has been preserved and her eyes removed with surgical precision. Not long after, another body is discovered treated in the exact same manner. The press quickly names the spectacular case the Sandman Killings.Detective Inspector Lars Winkler is put on the case. With an addiction to classical rock music and the odd line of speed, Lars is struggling to get his life back together, mostly with his sixteen-year-old daughter, Maria, who lives with him in his rundown apartment. His wife has left him for his old friend and former boss. Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the Homicide and Serious Crime Department is tense. Despite support from his new young partner, Sanne Bissen, Lars feels edged out. While tracking Copenhagens most sadistic serial killer to date, his past which has long been kept secret is slowly catching up to him.

The mayor of Copenhagen is found murdered in his luxury apartment. Detective Lars Winkler is put on this sensitive case, which is further complicated by the fact that the victim's mother is the leader of the country's most radical political party and the current minister of finance. Lars notices the minister and her husband are strangely untouched by their son's death. When he begins to dig into the mayor's past, he slowly uncovers the dark story of a young, idealistic man who had only one wish: to free himself of his family and live his own life. Dark and chilling, The Scream of the Butterfly is Scandinavian crime at its best.