Four women work together for a small nonprofit that disseminates information on genocide. When two of them receive death threats, they immediately believe the messages come from one of the war criminals whom they have recently profiled in their articles. But as the tensions mount among the women, they discover that none of them is exactly the person they seem to be. Their obsession with tracking down the killer turns into a witch hunt: one by one, the women dismiss the idea that the threats were sent from the outside and begin to suspect each other, disclosing the jealousies and contempt that have been simmering just beneath the surface as they resort to bullying and victimization. Yet these are people who daily analyze cases of appalling cruelty on a worldwide scale, and who are intimate with the psychology of evil.

A tautly woven philosophical drama with all the trimmings of an electrifying murder mystery, THE EXCEPTION heralds Christian Jungersen as a gifted storyteller and keen observer of the human psyche.

• translationhardbacknovel2007