Death zones - Simon Pasternak

In the lawless killing fields of the Eastern Front, SS Oberleutnant Hoffmann is on a mission to find a murderer

Belorussia, July 1943. As the Battle of Kursk rages to the east and the tide turns against the Nazi offensive, large swathes of White Russia are declared death zones - and a terrifying onslaught is unleashed on the civilian population.

German detective Oberleutnant Heinrich Hoffmann, posted to the brutal fringes of a crumbling Reich, is struggling to keep his focus, as his thoughts stray to Eline back in Hamburg. But when a visiting General and his wife are found murdered and mutilated, Heinrich is charged with finding the culprit, at whatever cost. His only witness: a six-year-old local girl.

In the man hunt that follows, Heinrich struggles to retain his humanity in the face of shifting loyalties, violence, and deadly SS politics, in the wild bloodlands between Berlin and Moscow.

Winner of the Danish Crime Book Award