Stadelheim : tower of torment
(Book)

In 1993, Lars, handsome with thick, blond hair, has girlfriend problems. He's approaching forty. His old girlfriend has rented a room in the basement of his Minneapolis house. His new, twenty-something girlfriend is noncommittal. Among those invited to his birthday party--a big bash--are members of his bridge-playing group. This includes Dale, the wealthy owner of a Lake Minnetonka estate and frequent host of bridge games. Dale is an odd person. He has a scar on his face and has trouble speaking. His mother is a post-WWII German émigré. A Nazi-sympathizer, she molded her only child in that ideology. Lars has no idea Dale perceives him as the Aryan ideal. Nor that Dale covets Lars's niece, a fourteen year-old gifted gymnast. He fantasizes kidnapping her. Will Dale's white supremacist accomplice, Jimmy, help him carry out the kidnapping? Will they be stopped by Sergeant Turner, a black cop? Will Turner's mastery of police protocol help Lars open his eyes to the truth about Dale? Will Lar's epiphany come in time to save his niece from Dale's morbid design?