Synopsis

What if it came to the starkest of all choices: kill, or else suffer the loss of a loved one?

Readers' comments: 'simply the best', 'one of the best books I've read', 'loved it', 'amazing', 'great reading', 'stumped me to the very end' and others

Plot: When a pregnant doctor is brutally murdered in her own kitchen, the husband claims to have some weeks earlier received an anonymous and darkly menacing letter. For the small town of Ravensby, it's just the start of a living nightmare - one in which nobody is spared from the murderous cross hairs, and which will drive Detective Inspector Kubič to the edge of his own sanity...

Genre: suspense/thriller

Status: completed

Length: 70,000 words (approx. 275 standard novel pages)

Target readership: Though aimed primarily at adults, the novel features several teenage characters and so may also appeal to a younger audience

Extract:

"Warn you sir, not a pretty sight in there."

Kubič took a deep, preparatory breath, his footsteps slow and leaden as he moved towards the kitchen door. Not for the first time over the years, he found himself wishing he'd chosen an entirely different sort of career. Paper-pushing, something out of doors. Anything at all. He'd always been reasonable enough at woodwork back at school, he recalled. Why hadn't he done that, he thought? Become a cabinet maker or some damn thing.

A reluctant hand pushed open the door...

"Oh dear Christ."

The words escaped his mouth forcefully, involuntarily, like blood gushing from an open wound