Medieval fascination with anatomy and modern day obsession with rare books spark a series of gruesome murders in Norway and the US, and bring detectives from both countries together to hunt down a serial killer. 1528. A young Franciscan monk travels to Norway to collect a set of scalpels from a barber surgeon with whom he shares a dark and mysterious obsession with the dissection of human corpses. He travels north and settles in a remote village. His deadly legacy is a mysterious manuscript, the Book of John, bound in human skin. Nearly five hundred years later, it seems that the ancient practice is experiencing a revival