The First Fingerprint
By Xavier-Marie Bonnot
Published by MacLehose Press
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Michel de Palma, of the Marseilles murder squad, has never lost a case, and he is not going to start now.
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Book Review
In an underwater cavern off the coast of Marseille are the first human engravings known to man. Among them is a crude drawing of a three-fingered hand, which has long puzzled archaeologists. Is it a hunting signal? A mystic sign invoking the spirits? Or is it, as many believe, evidence of ritual amputation in a Shamanistic world?
'The Hunter' apparently believes the latter. Driven by strange voices to kill and mutilate, he severs the body parts of his victims - and always signs his horrific crimes with a drawing of a three-fingered hand.
The identity of this brutal killer is unfathomable, but Michel de Palma, of the Marseilles murder squad, has never lost a case, and he is not going to start now. He heads to the University to investigate, but the clique of prehistory professors he encounters are as secretive as the cave-drawing itself.
Slowly and alone, de Palma unravels a mystery that dates back to the Ice Age.
Translator: Ian Monk
