Keynote
A full-blooded crime story set in a small,
provincial town, where historic crimes are
embroiled with the dark present. Only
the pair of investigators from The X-Files
could cope with them.
SELLING POINTS
 Małecki is one of the most popular crime
writers in Poland, and all his previous
books became bestsellers.
 The first in a new crime series about
investigators from a unit investigating
unsolved historic crimes.
 The author’s return to classic, fullblooded
crime writing of the best kind.
 A vivid and fascinating portrait of
the Polish provinces where the sleepy
atmosphere is only an illusion.
 Charismatic and well-rounded
protagonists, who are also struggling with
their own pasts.
 The author is very well-known and
a popular media figure, with tens of
thousands of followers on his social media.
 Rights for film and TV adaptations of his
previous books have already been sold.
Description
The 1990s, a small town in northern
Poland, where everything is dull, grey,
and depressing – a small boy, Filipek,
is kidnapped. His parents receive a letter
with ransom demands. His father

shows up at the agreed location to meet
the kidnappers, but he is shot and a bag
containing the money disappears. The trail
goes cold, the investigation grinds to
a halt. Thirty years later, the boy’s father
contacts Maria Herman and Olgierd
Borewicz, police officers from a special
unit dealing with unsolved historic crimes.
But when the investigators reach the town,
Filipek’s father is dead – his body is found
in woodland, decimated by a recent
hurricane. An investigation is begun and
soon more and more mysterious threads
begin to emerge: a crime from the 1990s
is mixed up with what Herman and her
partner discover in the present. It also
turns out certain people aren’t happy
with the fact that the police are snooping
in Grudziądz. Things begin to hot up in
the town.
Target Market
Fans of crime fiction.
People interested in Polish culture and
history.