They want him off the case; the “powers that be” are embarrassed that Enzo Macleod has turned a convenient disappearance into a confirmed murder. Journalist Roger Raffin is convinced that he’s been murdered, but there’s never been any evidence of that, despite several investigations.

The mystery inspires a bet, one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland can ill afford to lose. The mystery and clues were very well done and indeed as remarked near the end without the internet would have been difficult if not impossible to solve. Former forensics expert Enzo Macleod is determined to get to the bottom of a series of unsolved murders.Deep in the catacombs below the city, he unearths dark clues deliberately set - and he draws closer to the killer, discovers that he is to be the next victim.

very naive of me to think that a book set in Paris by a Brit would have similar themes running through it.I kept having the odd feeling with this book that it was not the first in a series and that I had missed out on some important character development in a previous book. Enzo takes the bet and it’s not long before Enzo proves that the missing intellectual is not just missing but is indeed dead.