Das Große Tier – The Great Beast

Kiepenheuer & Witsch
February 22, 2010, 496 pages

1st January: Stuart Hill, head of Promethean Industries, an international conglomerate specialising in satellite technology, dies under mysterious circumstances in his suite in Berlin’s Adlon Hotel after a boozy New Year’s celebration. The next day, the company’s share price plummets. Somebody is earning enormous amounts of money as a result of Hill’s death. Sarah Jakobs, the young chief superintendent responsible for economic crime with the State Office for Criminal Investigation in Berlin, is put in charge when further murders occur. The bodies of the victims are arranged in a mysterious, sculptural way. Once again, they are high-ranking managers, and again there are no signs of the culprits. Only a cryptic message has been left at the scene of the crime. Jakobs tries to solve the case with the help of Vincent Wagner, a PhD student of art history. She has the ominous feeling she is onto something big. Perhaps something too big. The case takes her from Dante’s Inferno and medieval Satan to the ancient Greek god Cronos, god of time and the father of Zeus. And to an ancient association that has been working
towards its goal for hundreds of years. A goal that has almost been achieved.