Berlin, in the winter of 1942 is a bleak, dark, frightened city, scarred by frequent bombing raids.
SS officer Ernst Keppler is found murdered in a dingy office surrounded by a trove of top secret
files. The Berlin Kriminalpolizei officers sent to the crime scene find what should be a routine murder
investigation being obstructed by the Gestapo's denial of access to vital evidence. What is their
motive for impeding the investigation? As the number of murders rise, Inspector Konrad Brandt of the
Kriminalpolizei is brought to Berlin from outside the city to oversee an increasingly difficult and dangerous investigation, which numerous government security agencies seem determined to thwart. Who is carrying out the murders of high ranking Nazi officials, and why? The Substance of Shadows is author Paul Thomas Holdren's first novel and is full of suspense and danger as the tale of death, corruption and deceit unfolds.