The Enemy Within

The ghetto settlement Oksevænget on Bellahøj in Copenhagen has long been in the media's focus with crime, ethnic tensions and social problems. But with a long, tough effort, the municipality and the residents' association have succeeded in reversing the downward spiral.

The Danish People's Party's mayor in Copenhagen, Kristian Havholm, wants to enter national politics, and together with his special adviser, he plans to visit the area. Copenhagen's police are in a dilemma: Refuse and get the press and half of the Parliament on their backs, or let him in with the risk of riots that could spread to the whole city.

The police director chooses to put an iron ring around Oksevænget. No one comes out and no one comes in as long as the mayor is there.

But just as Kristian Havholm and his advisor are on their way in the mayor's car, and the entire Danish press is lined up outside the cordon, a resident finds the body of an eight-year-old girl in a garbage container — and the gate to hell is opened.

Police assistant Lars Winkler, who has just returned after two weeks of compulsory leave, is appointed head of the investigation. It will be seventeen hours in Oksevænget's witch's cauldron — and with Kristian Havholm in a surprising role — that Lars will not soon forget.

THE ENEMY AMONG US is the sixth volume in the series about police assistant Lars Winkler. First of all, it is an exciting crime story about murder, police work and fear. But in a slightly larger perspective, it is also a book about how we talk together. About what we can do and perhaps especially should not do if we are to continue to be able to live together