Wolfgang Burger, born in 1952 in the Southern Black Forest, is today primarily known as an author of his Heidelberg crime novels featuring Chief Inspector Alexander Gerlach. In Burger's earlier books, Gerlach was still part of the team of the Karlsruhe Criminal Police under Chief Inspector Petzold. In this fifth volume of the Commissioner Petzold series, however, the colleagues must manage without Gerlach. Erased - The city church at Karlsruhe marketplace strikes 12:00. With a piercing scream, a young woman collapses in the midst of the midday hustle and bustle. It turns out that she has been stabbed. At first glance, there seem to be plenty of witnesses, and the investigators, Thomas Petzold and his partner Birgit Malmberg, hope for a quickly solvable case. However, everything turns out to be much more difficult and opaque than expected. Suddenly, Petzold even feels he is being followed by unknown individuals.