After writing an explicit suicide note, Simon Winter, a retired detective, expert in solving homicide, is about to pull the trigger that would end an old age of loneliness that no longer makes sense to him. However, this fatal decision is thwarted when the doorbell of his apartment rings insistently; it is his neighbor, Mrs. Sophie Millstein, who comes terrified and panicked because she believes she has seen a ghost from her past.

Tras escribir una explícita nota de suicido, Simón Winter, un detective retirado, experto en resolver homicidio, está a punto de apretar el gatillo que acabaría con una vejez de soledad que ya no le consigue sentido a la vida. Sin embargo, esta fatal decisión se ve frustrada cuando suena insistentemente el timbre de su apartamento; es su vecina la señora Sophie Millstein, que viene aterrorizada y muerta de pánico porque cree haber visto un fantasma de su pasado.

Sophie Millstein was an old woman who managed to escape from Berlin in 1943 when Jews were hunted and killed. By then, there was a man, also Jewish, who, betraying his own, worked for the Gestapo, the Jewish investigation office. He was a hunter who in exchange for his freedom, hunted down and murdered Jews to satisfy the Germans. It is said that he did it with absolute pleasure, nobody saw his face until the day of his death, and nobody knew his name. They called him, Der Schattenmann, the shadow man.

Sophie Millstein era una anciana que logró escapar de Berlín en 1.943 cuando los judíos eran cazados y asesinados. Para entonces, existió un hombre, también judío, que traicionando a los suyos, trabajaba para la Gestapo, la oficina de investigación judía. Era un cazador que a cambio de su libertad, buscaba y asesinaba a los judíos para satisfacer a los alemanes. Se dice que lo hacía con absoluto placer, nadie veía su rostro hasta el día de su muerte, y tampoco nadie, sabía su nombre. Le decían, Der Schattenmann, la sombra.

Some say that no one escaped the clutches of that hunter, but Sophie did, she managed to escape from Germany and now lived in a quiet residence in Miami Beach.

Comentan que nadie escapaba de las garras de aquel cazador, pero Sophie sí, ella logró escapar de Alemania y ahora vivía en una tranquila residencia en Miami Beach.

But that night when Sophie arrived at Mr. Winter's apartment and interrupted a well-planned suicide, she was sure she had seen the man from her past, and she was terrified, scared to death, convinced that he would come for her and murder her.

Pero aquella noche cuando Sophie llegó al apartamento del señor Winter e interrumpió un suicidio muy bien planificado, ella estaba segura de haber visto a aquel hombre de su pasado, y estaba aterrada, muerta de miedo, convencida de que él vendría por ella y la asesinaría.

The story told by the old woman to the old homicide expert made him very curious. In spite of this, he tried to calm the woman's anxiety, assuring her that everything would be all right, and that the next day he would find out everything himself. He escorted her to her apartment and left.

La historia que relató la anciana al viejo experto en homicidios, le causó mucha curiosidad a éste. A pesar de ello, el intentó calmar la ansiedad de la mujer, asegurándole que todo estaría bien, y que al día siguiente, él mismo se encargaría de averiguarlo todo. El la acompañó hasta su apartamento y se marchó.

However, what Sophie Millstein feared so much happened that very night. The screams of neighbors alerted that an intruder had entered the elderly woman's apartment and murdered her, leaving in the victim's eyes signs of horror and terror.

Sin embargo, aquello que tanto temía Sophie Millstein, ocurrió esa misma noche. Los gritos de los vecinos alertaron que un intruso entró hasta el apartamento de la anciana y la asesinó, dejando en los ojos de la víctima muestras de horror y terror.

Although the crime scene seemed to suggest a common robbery with a fatal outcome, the expert Simon Winter now knew that it could have been something else, something associated with the story of Der Schattenmann that Sophie had told him a few hours before her death. It is possible that that Jew hunter did exist, and that he was in Miami looking for Holocaust survivors to exterminate them.

Aunque la escena del crimen parecía suponer un robo común con un desenlace fatal, el experto Simón Winter ahora sabía que pudo haber sido algo más, algo asociado a la historia de Der Schattenmann que Sophie le había relatado pocas horas antes de su muerte. Es posible que sí existiese aquel cazador de judíos, y que estuviese en Miami buscando a los sobrevivientes del holocausto para exterminarlos.

Paradoxically, the death of Sophie Millstein has given Simon Winter a new reason to live, now he must try to solve the murder of his neighbor, find her killer and catch the shadow man.

Paradojicamente la muerte de Sophie Millstein le ha dado una nueva razón de vida a Simón Winter, ahora él deberá intentar resolver el asesinato de su vecina, buscar a su asesino y atrapar a, la sombra.

Author.

Born in the United States on June 23, 1950, John Katzenbach is a journalist, a reporter of extensive experience, specializing in judicial and criminal issues for renowned newspapers, work that he combines with writing, even becoming a screenwriter of successful films that have been based on his literary works.

Nacido en Estados Unidos el 23 de junio de 1950, John Katzenbach es un periodista, reportero de amplia trayectoria, especializado en temas judiciales y de criminalista para reconocidos diarios, labor que compagina con la escritura, llegando a ser incluso guionista de peliculas exitosas que han sido basadas en sus obras literarias.

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