'Mesmerising and utterly absorbing' New York Times'A magnificent storyteller' Der Spiegel A retired small-town doctor takes a garden axe to his cruel wife. A woman laces her brother's food with barbiturates. Two men steal a priceless Japanese tea bowl with brutal consequences. What drives a person to commit a crime?Our narrator knows that behind every misdeed is a story waiting to be told.In this collection of chilling cases, a nameless lawyer recounts the love, obsession, selfishness and despair that influenced his clients' irrevocable choices.Drawn from Ferdinand von Schirach's eminent career as a criminal defence lawyer, Crime blends fiction with real life, each story a revealing, unsettling insight into what may compel a person to act beyond the law.