It is on a routine job in the Saharan desert that Kit (The Bone Whiserer) Henson – an expert in the field of osteology –stumbles onto what appears to be a cover up by a major energy company, whose runoff has poisoned a nomad camp. In her efforts to save one young boy Kit stirs up a hornet’s nest and makes a very dangerous enemy.

Disgraced and kicked of the site Kit returns to her home. For years she has lived in Paris together with her husband, the aspiring art photographer Colin. But, his brief stint as a Saigon shutterbug back in ‘75 has begun to wear thin and as each grieving parent blames the other for the tragic death of their son the couple begins to drift apart.

When an art gallery in Ho Chi Minh City buys Colin’s myriad of Vietnamese black-and-white photographs the unhappy couple decide to travel down to Vietnam. Back to the place Colin never stops talking about. But they’ve barely touched down when they’re both assassinated.

Kit miraculously survives a bullet wound to the head but her formerly so orderly brain has been turned inside out and she starts to see things that aren’t there. Slowly, she is nursed back to health by her long-time business partner, Rufus. When he gets them a temporary gig in the highlands of Huê’ Kit’s erratic behaviour draws heat, driving her to madness. She has begun to “see” crime scenes in a way that unnerves others on the team.

The first part of a trilogy Kejserens port (The Emperor’s Garden) is a psychological thriller about losing your mind but regaining your sanity. It lives in the borderlands where real life becomes mythology.

First published by Politiken Forlag, 2009