H₂O - Das Sterben beginnt

In the Bavarian Forest, an unknown group contaminates a drinking-water reservoir with highly radioactive nuclear waste. As the first victims fall ill and die, panic spreads — the perpetrators have announced that this is only the first of several planned attacks, and no authority can protect every water source in the country at once.

Counter-terrorism investigator Julian Berg and Dr. Alexander Kehlhausen of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection are forced to work together, racing against both the clock and an adversary who understands the vulnerability of Germany's water infrastructure better than the people meant to defend it. Ivo Pala, a screenwriter and dramaturg for German crime and action series before turning to fiction, builds the novel around the everyday fragility of a system readers take for granted, grounding the thriller's set pieces in real technical detail about water treatment and radiological contamination.