Off the port of Toulon, divers recover an ancient Punic urn containing a mysterious substance. On the other side of the Mediterranean, a Tunisian fishing boat hauls up the drowned body of a child marked with strange letters written in blood. It is the first in a series of killings, and Soufiane — a captain in the criminal brigade with a tormented past — and Sara, an eccentric forensic pathologist, soon realise the two discoveries are connected.
So begins the hunt for the most disturbing serial killer since the Monster of Nabeul. When an ancient Punic prophecy speaking of "the Child-Dragon" resurfaces, the investigation takes a stranger turn still, drawing the detectives toward Carcosa and the shadow of the King in Yellow. From Toulon to the Punic ports, from the Tophet of Carthage to a cytogenetics laboratory in Sousse, blood is spilled and history bleeds into the present.
The second volume of Sami Mokaddem's Carthage Trilogy is a Tunisian thriller that fuses police procedural, ancient mythology, and medical science — a dark, fast-moving mystery steeped in the history of Carthage.