In 1975, a People’s Militia homicide investigator is on a plane for Istanbul when it is hijacked by Armenian terrorists. Before the Turkish authorities can fulfill the hijackers’ demands, the plane explodes in midair.

Two investigators, a secret policeman and a homicide detective, are assigned to the case. Both believe that their superiors are keeping them in the dark, but they can’t figure out why…until they begin to realize that everything is connected to a seven-year-old murder, a seemingly insignificant killing that has had far-reaching consequences.

Politics and history, for which Olen Steinhauer’s novels are most praised, turn intimate and highly compelling in this new novel, reminiscent of John le Carré’s best.