For Commandant Verhoeven life is beautiful: he is happily married, expecting his first child with the lovely Irène. But his blissful existence is punctured by a murder of unprecedented savagery. Worse still, the press seem to have it in for him - his every move is headline news. When he discovers that the killer has killed before - that each murder is a homage to a classic crime novel - the fourth estate are quick to coin a nickname. . . The Novelist . . . With both men in the public eye, the case develops into a personal duel, each hell-bent on outsmarting the other. There can only be one winner - whoever has the least to lose . . .