SACROSANCT
In the aftermath of World War II, young Marcus Hartstein endures brutal abuse at the hands of his parents in Austria. Rescued in 1946 by a compassionate British doctor, Marcus’s fragile new life shatters again when his benefactor and his wife are murdered. Vowing vengeance and determined to protect his orphaned step-sister, Barbara, Marcus takes on a new identity—Hartmann—and is soon drawn into the shadows of espionage.
A covert mission in Armenia introduces him to Rosa, a courageous Kurdish woman whose bond with Marcus and Barbara evolves into an unbreakable love triangle. Yet behind Marcus’s tender side lies a man haunted by childhood trauma, channelling his pain into ruthless justice against abusers the law cannot reach. To the public, he becomes the elusive “Rope Killer,” pursued relentlessly by Detective Christine Ling, who closes in as his double life grows more perilous.
By 1979, Marcus is also known for a gentler pursuit—guiding couples in the art of intimacy—his darkness hidden from those closest to him. His search for truth about his fractured family, especially his lost brother Marius, drives him deeper into questions of survival, morality, and the scale of abuse in society.
Decades later, in Book Two, Marcus is believed dead. But when new murders emerge with his unmistakable signature, Detective Christine Ling and her husband, profiler Clive Moran, are pulled from retirement. As bodies mount and the methods grow more gruesome than Marcus’s own, the question looms: has Hartstein returned, or has someone else taken up his merciless crusade?