Vienna, 1910. On a warm August night, the body of a young girl is discovered in the city's celebrated Volksgarten. She has been strangled. Using the latest forensic methods, the Chief Inspector of Police begins his painstaking search for the killer. He is not alone, however. His wife Erszébet - a woman steeped in the folk tales and Gypsy lore of her native Hungary - becomes obsessed with the dead girl. In secret, she conducts her own investigation of the murder, guided by intuition, instinct and superstitution.

Set against the brooding backdrop of fin-de-siècle Vienna, The Fig Eater is a mesmerizing novel of suspense and latent eroticism.