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Dordogne, July 1942. The Germans occupy France, but there are still "ordinary crimes" to be investigated. Jean-Louis St-Cyr of the Surete Nationale and Hermann Kohler of the Gestapo are two seasoned detectives, professional policemen who have been paired by their superiors. They work well together, each supplementing the other's skills. Now they are faced with a dilemma.
A respectable middle-aged woman has been found bludgeoned to death, butchered. The body has been virtually ripped apart. What could have provoked such savagery? As postmistress of her provincial village, she knew everyone's business. Was she a threat to someone? She despised her son-in-law and was loathed by him. Could he have killed her? Or was it a secret lover with whom she'd had a rendezvous?
But perhaps the motive for the crime lies in the past. Many years ago, she had participated in the discovery of a prehistoric art trove rivaling the caves of Lascaux. A motion picture company has just arrived in the area to make a film of that event tracing Nazi roots back to Neanderthal times. Himmler is excited, Goebbels has sunk money into the venture, the Fuhrer himself is ecstatic. Do St-Cyr and Kohler dare to bring the murderer to justice?
