A young boy wakes to find his mother gone - only wet footprints on the stairs and his mother's scarf on a snowman remain. Inspector Harry Hole is convinced there is a link between this and a menacing letter he received, and when he and his team check through unsolved case files, they discover that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years. Then a second woman disappears. Some descriptions of sex, strong language, and explicit descriptions of violence. 2010. (The Harry Hole mystery series ; 7)