Guilty until proven innocent . . .

It''s hard for anyone to have their work scrutinised in public. For Amsterdam-based detective Lotte Meerman, listening to the Right to Justice podcast as they dissect one of her old cases is made even more harrowing as every episode makes fresh accusations of a bungled operation.

As the podcast reveals hidden facts about the arrest of Ruud Klaver, the one thing Lotte is still convinced of is that it was Ruud who was guilty of the murder of a student near Rembrandt Square ten years earlier. However, when Ruud Klaver then dies in suspicious circumstances, only hours after the final podcast proving his innocence is broadcast, Lotte has to accept that maybe she was wrong.

With the dead man''s family passionately against her inclusion in the investigation into his death, the only way for Lotte to discover who killed him is by finding out where she went wrong all those years ago - if indeed she did go wrong. As Lotte digs deeper and involves colleagues from her past, it starts to look like the murder in Rembrandt Square was part of an even bigger deception . . .

Praise for Anja de Jager

''. . . a novel brilliantly evoking the isolation of a woman with an unbearable weight on her conscience''

Sunday Times

''The book succeeds as a portrait of both a city and, in its heroine, a delightfully dysfunctional personality''

Sunday Express

''An impressive debut . . . De Jager is as good on dodgy family relations as she is on police procedure''

The Times

''Detective Lotte Meerman is damaged by her past and tortured by the dreadful mistake she''s made at work . . . Amsterdam in the vicious grip of a bitter winter is the other star here, beautiful and deadly'' Cath Staincliffe