Three children are massacred in their beds. The crushed corpse of their mother is discovered in a dockside warehouse. Hanno Stiffeniis, a Prussian magistrate, goes to investigate, but everything begins to unwind. Serge Lavedrine, a criminologist attached to the invading French army, steps in to resolve the mystery, and Stiffeniis is packed off to collect the husband from a remote fortress on the Russian border. But the husband, Bruno Gottewald, is dead and buried - killed while out on field manoeuvres. In less than a week the entire Gottewald family has been wiped off the face of the earth. A tragic coincidence? A military conspiracy involving Prussian troops? Or are the French using the massacre to expand their power?

Author Biography

Michael Gregorio are Michael G. Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio. She teaches philosophy. He is interested in the history of photography in the nineteenth century. They have been married for twenty-six years and live in Spoleto, a small town in central Italy. Days of Atonement is their second novel, following Critique of Criminal Reason.