The Norwegian ambassador was found murdered in a Bangkok brothel. In Oslo they are in a hurry to hush up the scandal and send police inspector Harry Hole to Thailand: he will have to conduct the investigation as confidentially as possible. Finding himself in the seedy places of Bangkok, among opium houses and strip bars, Harry gradually discovers that in the murder case not everything is as obvious as it seemed at first. Cockroaches rustle behind the baseboards. Someone is hiding in the darkness, and this someone cannot stand daylight. For the first time in Russian - a long-awaited detective novel from a recognized master of the genre, the main competitor of Stieg Larsson.