Hailed as Britain’s Queen of Crime, Val McDermid’s award-winning, internationally bestselling novels have captivated readers for more than thirty years. Now, in 1979, she returns to the past with the story of Allie Burns, an investigative journalist whose stories lead her into world a corruption, terror, and murder.

The year started badly and only got worse-blizzards, strikes, power cuts, and political unrest were the norm. For journalist Allie Burns, however, someone else’s bad news was the unmistakable sound of opportunity knocking, and the year is ripe with possibilities. But Allie is a woman in a man’s world. Desperate to get away from the “women’s stories” the Glasgow desk keeps assigning her, she strikes up an alliance with wannabe investigative journalist Danny Sullivan. From the start, their stories create enemies. First an international tax fraud, then a potential Scottish terrorist group aiming to cause mayhem ahead of the impending devolution referendum. And then Danny is found murdered in his flat. For Allie, investigative journalism just got personal.

The first novel in McDermid’s newest series, 1979 is an atmospheric journey into the past with intriguing insight into the present, and the latest addition to McDermid’s crime pantheon.

Hailed as Britain’s Queen of Crime, Val McDermid’s award-winning, internationally bestselling novels have captivated readers for over three decades. The second novel in McDermid’s newest series, 1989 is a full-body immersion in a world gone by, and a constant reminder of how history determines the present.

It’s 1989 and journalist Allie Burns is growing up. Older and maybe wiser than the hustling young hack we met in 1979, she’s running the northern news operation of the Sunday Globe, chafing at losing her role in investigative journalism and at the descent into the gutter of the UK tabloid media. But there’s plenty
to keep her occupied. The year begins with the memorial service for the victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, but Allie has barely filed her copy when she stumbles over a story about HIV/AIDS that will shock her into a major change of direction. The world of newspapers is undergoing a revolution, there’s
skullduggery in the medical research labs and seismic rumblings behind the Iron Curtain. When murder is added to this potent mix, Allie will be called upon to chase a story that will take her further afield than she’d ever planned, and force her to question all her old certainties.

A riveting thrill ride of a novel from a captivating new series, 1989 confirms internationally bestselling author Val McDermid as one of crime fiction’s true masters.

Award-winning author Val McDermid offers up a suspense-filled stand-alone novel with A Darker Domain. Karen Pirie is the newly appointed Deputy Inspector of the Cold Case Unit, and her first investigation takes her 25 years into the past to the national miners’ strike. At the time, a kidnapping gone wrong left a small boy missing, but new evidence suggests he might still be alive. As Pirie delves deeper, she realizes the boy’s disapperance may be linked to another cold case involving a missing miner.

Winner of the Gold Dagger Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Val McDermid pens mysteries heralded on both sides of the Atlantic. In Beneath the Bleeding, Dr. Tony Hill must make sense of the perplexing death of a soccer star-but the footballer’s demise is only a prelude to greater violence. “McDermid is as smooth a practitioner of crime fiction as anyone out there.” -New York Times Book Review

Kate Brannigan is having a bad weekend, her boyfriend’s death notice is in the newspaper, her plans to capture a team of heartless fraudsters are in disarray, and a Celtic neo-punk band want her to rescue them from saboteurs. As if that isn’t enough, Kate’s business partner wants her to buy him out so he can emigrate to Australia, and Private Eyes with principles never have that kind of cash. Kate can’t even cry on her best friend’s shoulder, for Alexis has worries of her own. Confronting betrayal and greed, Kate fights to save her livelihood and her life.

Why would anyone want to kill Penny Varnavides, bestselling author of the Teen Dreams series? Her demise can’t be the freak accident it first appeared–it’s an exact replica of the murder method in her forthcoming book. Only three people knew the plot of Penny’s unpublished novel: her literary agent, her editor and her ex-girlfriend Meredith. In an effort to clear Meredith, Lindsay Gordon delves beneath the glittering facade of the seemingly glamorous world of London publishing in search of a murderer. While hobnobbing with industry notables, Lindsay encounters an unsavoury mix of soured relationships, desperate power plays, underhanded fraud, and seething rivalries. Who, amongst this sordid group, wanted Penny Varnavides dead?

Internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, and her gripping, masterfully plotted novels have garnered millions of readers from around the globe. In Broken Ground, cold case detective Karen Pirie faces her hardest challenge yet. Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somerville’s inheritance, buried by her grandfather at the end of World War II. But when Alice finally uncovers it, she finds an unwanted surprise?a body with a bullet hole between the eyes. Meanwhile, DCI Pirie is called in to unravel a case where nothing is quite as it seems. And as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that not everyone shares her desire for justice. Or even the idea of what justice is. An engrossing, twisty thriller, Broken Ground reaffirms Val McDermid’s place as one of the best crime writers of her generation.

English kick-boxer and Rudyard Kipling fan Kate Brannigan appears in her fourth adventure, chasing down art thieves in Italy while unravelling a nasty case of product tampering in her homeland. When a precious Monet painting is nicked from a posh British estate where she arranged the security, the tough-talking PI is right on the job to get it back. Kate Brannigan goes head to head with organized crime when a routine industrial case starts leaving a trail of bodies across the northwest, forcing Kate to confront hard truths in her own life.

There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with an investigation into a car sales fraud – nothing bad could happen. But by now Kate should know that with Richard you have to expect the unexpected. Richard behind bars, Kate seems to be the obvious choice to look after his eight-year-old son – who proves even more troublesome than his father. Kate finds herself dragged into a world of drug traffickers, child pornographers, fraudsters and violent gangland enforcers bringing her face to face with death in the most terrifying investigation of her career.

McDermid is as smooth a practitioner of crime fiction as anyone out there. . . . She’ s the best we’ ve got.”– New York Times Book Review Internationally best-selling crime writer Val McDermid’ s work speaks for itself: her books have sold millions of copies worldwide, won numerous accolades, and attracted a devoted following of readers around the globe. Her latest, Cross and Burn , picks up where The Retribution left off: following the best crime-fighting team in the UK– clinical psychologist Tony Hill and police detective Carol Jordan– who when we last saw them were barely speaking, and whose relationship will now be challenged even further. Guilt and grief have driven a wedge between long time crime-fighting partners psychologist Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan. But just because they’re not talking doesn’t mean the killing stops. Someone is killing women. Women who bear an unsettling resemblance to Carol Jordan. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer. Cornered by events, Tony and Carol are forced to fight for themselves and each other as never before. An edge-of-your-seat page-turner from one of the best crime writers we have, Cross and Burn is a chilling, unforgettable read. ” Smooth. Confident. Deeply satisfying. What else can you say about McDermid’ s writing? . . . The Jordan-Hill relationship remains the star of the show. . . . It’ s a match made in heaven amid hell on earth.”– Entertainment Weekly on The Torment of Others

Dead Beat introduces Kate Brannigan, a Thai boxing, rock-and-roll female private detective from Manchester. As a favor to her rock journalist boyfriend, Kate agrees to track down a missing song-writer Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford. But little does she realise that finding Moira is only a prelude to murder. Juggling her other cases, including a search to uncover the source of counterfeit luxury goods, Brannigan finds herself for the first time on the trail of a killer.

Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Val McDermid pens thrilling mysteries eagerly devoured by fans. In the sixth novel in her Tony Hill series-the inspiration for the hit British television show Wire in the Blood-psychologist Tony Hill and Detective Carol Jordan’s investigation of a teenage girl’s murder leads them to an Internet predator. “McDermid is both a fiendish plot strategist and a highly skilled writer, deftly delivering shocks, sometimes with no more than an out-of-place word.”-Booklist

Lindsay Gordon finds herself dragged into a sordid world of blackmail, prostitution, lies and murder when she investigates the case of a former colleague jailed for killing a notorious Glaswegian journalist. Third in the popular mystery series.When Alison Maxwell, a well-known Glaswegian journalist with an irresistible sexual attraction to both sexes, is found murdered the police look no further than the owner of the scarf used to strangle her. Lindsay Gordon, however, has other ideas. Maxwell was a serial seductress who kept a secret record of her encounters – including one with Lindsay herself. Recalling the threats that followed the end of the relationship, Lindsay knows all too well the feelings of rage, fear and passion that Alison Maxwell could invoke.Soon Lindsay is embroiled in an investigation involving blackmail,stolen government documents and the vested interests of a group of people determined to keep her from finding the truth.

Val McDermid is one of the finest crime writers we have, whose novels have captivated millions of listeners worldwide with their riveting narratives of characters who solve complex crimes and confront unimaginable evil. In the course of researching her bestselling novels, McDermid has become familiar with ever branch of forensics, and now she uncovers the history of this science, real-world murders, and the people who must solve them.
The dead talk-to the right listener. They can tell us about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest human traces. Forensics draws on interviews with some of these top-level professionals, groundbreaking research, and Val McDermid’s own original interviews and firsthand experience on scene with top forensic scientist.
Along the way, McDermid discovers how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine one’s time of death; how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer; and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist were able to uncover the victims of a genocide. It’s a journey that will take McDermid to war zones, fire scenes, and autopsy suites, and bring her into contact with both extraordinary bravery and wickedness, as she traces the history of forensics for its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.
A former journalist and Northern Bureau Chief of a national UK tabloid, Val McDermid is the bestselling author of The Skeleton Road and twenty-eight previous novels, three story collections, and the nonfiction book A Suitable Job for a Woman, an inside look at female private investigators. She lives in Scotland. 

Hostage to Murder, the long-awaited sixth Lindsay Gordon mystery, is a lightning-paced story spliced with crackling action and an intense emotional dimension.Spraining an ankle is rarely a stroke of luck, but for Lindsay Gordon, jobless in Glasgow, the injury is her introduction to young freelance journalist Rory McLaren and the opening of a new chapter in her life. Rory’s invitation to work alongside her in her booth at the Cafe Virginia is irresistible. From there it is just a short step to political corruption and other juicy stories – all welcome distractions from Lindsay’s problems at home, where her long-term lover Sophie has decided to heed the ticking of her biological clock and get pregnant. But when a local car-dealer’s stepson is kidnapped, Lindsay and Rory are invited to trade journalism for detection. The trail leads them to St Petersburg and a dangerous snatch-back operation. It’s a journey that brings a whole new dimension of risk into Lindsay’s life. Back in Glasgow, it becomes clear that Lindsay and Rory have stumbled into a bigger, more violent piece of business than either of them could have guessed – and one which will test Lindsay to her absolute limits.

After an explosive case that forced Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to reassess everything they thought they knew about right and wrong, both are dealing with the fallout in their own separate ways. While Tony must pay the price for his actions, Carol is conducting investigations into suspected miscarriages of justice. But when a shocking discovery is made on a construction site, and skeletal remains are found to belong to a killer who is supposedly alive and in prison, suddenly, Tony and Carol are brought into each other’s orbit once again . . . The next eagerly anticipated, electrifying thriller from number one bestseller and queen of crime, Val McDermid, featuring the unforgettable Tony Hill and Carol Jordan.

The latest in internationally bestselling crime writer Val McDermid’s beloved series, Insidious Intent sends Tony Hill and Carol Jordan after a serial killer who targets single women at weddings-and into the teeth of a moral dilemma. Widely recognized as one of our finest crime writers, with numerous accolades and legions of devoted readers worldwide, internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is back with the latest installment in her series featuring psychologist Tony Hill and former police detective Carol Jordan. In Insidious Intent, Tony and Carol are on the hunt for a serial killer who victimizes women at weddings without a date-and forces the duo to confront their most haunting moral dilemma so far. In the north of England, single women are beginning to disappear from weddings. A pattern soon becomes clear: Someone is crashing the festivities and luring the women away-only to leave the victims’ bodies in their own burned-out cars in remote locations. Tony and Carol are called upon to investigate-but this may be the toughest case they’ve ever had to face. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Paula McIntyre and her partner Elinor must deal with a cruel cyber-blackmailer targeting their teenage ward, Torin. Impeccably plotted and intensely gripping, Insidious Intent reaffirms Val McDermid’s place as Britain’s reigning Queen of Crime.

In the second in the series, Kate Brannigan investigates the bizarre case of the missing conservatories (sunrooms attached to the back of a standing house), unearthing an unscrupulous lawyer (later found hanging from his balcony in flimsy women’s apparel); a supersalesman with an overstuffed bank account; and a brother-sister pair who are double-crossing everyone. And this real estate fiddling ties in with a separate scam involving Kate’s best buds — and murder of the most unexpected order.

Internationally best-selling crime writer Val McDermid has riveted millions of readers worldwide with her acutely suspenseful, psychologically complex, seamlessly plotted thrillers. In Northanger Abbey, she delivers her own, witty, updated take on Austen’s classic novel about a young woman whose visit to the stately home of a well-to-do acquaintance stirs her most macabre imaginings, with an extra frisson of suspense that only McDermid could provide. Cat Morland is ready to grow up. A homeschooled minister’s daughter in the quaint, sheltered Piddle Valley in Dorset, she loses herself in novels and is sure there is a glamorous adventure awaiting her beyond the valley’s narrow horizon. So imagine her delight when the Allens, neighbors and friends of her parents, invite her to attend the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh as their guest. With a sunny personality, tickets every night and a few key wardrobe additions courtesy of Susie Allen, Cat quickly begins to take Edinburgh by storm and is taken into the bosom of the Thorpe family, particularly by eldest daughter Bella. And then there’s the handsome Henry Tilney, an up-and-coming lawyer whose family home is the beautiful and forbidding Northanger Abbey. Cat is entranced by Henry and his charming sister Eleanor, but she can’t help wondering if everything about them is as perfect as it seems. Or has she just been reading too many novels? A delectable, note-perfect modern update of the Jane Austen classic, Northanger Abbey tells a timeless story of innocence amid cynicism, the exquisite angst of young love, and the value of friendship.

A stunning new cold case novel from internationally bestselling crime writer Val McDermid about a car crash that opens up an unsolved murder from decades before Internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, whose gripping, impeccably plotted novels have garnered millions of readers worldwide. In her latest, Out of Bounds, she delivers a riveting cold case novel featuring detective Karen Pirie. When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test reveals a connection to an unsolved murder from twenty-two years before. Finding the answer to the cold case should be straightforward. But it’s as twisted as the DNA helix itself. Meanwhile, Karen finds herself irresistibly drawn to another mystery that she has no business investigating, a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. And again, she finds that nothing is as it seems. An enthralling, twisty read, Out of Bounds reaffirms Val McDermid’s place as one of the most dependable professionals in the mystery and thriller business.

Lindsay Gordon, self-proclaimed cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist is less than overjoyed at the prospect of spending a weekend at a posh girls’ boarding school. Tensions are running high over the school’s financial problems; the fact that school alumna and reknowned musician Lorna Smith-Couper, will return to the school to perform at a benefit concert only exacerbates anxieties. When Smith-Couper is found strangled with her own cello string right before the concert, Lindsay and Cordelia find their new relationship tested in unique ways as they seek to find the murderer among a long list of suspects. …a clever mystery, a good read, and a heroine who is my kind of woman: Lindsay Gordon is smart, tenacious, daring, lusty, loyal, and class-conscious to the bone –Barbara Neely, author of the Blanche White series.

Widely recognized as one of our finest crime writers, with numerous accolades and legions of devoted readers worldwide, internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is back with the latest installment in her much beloved series featuring psychologist Tony Hill and former police detective Carol Jordan. Splinter the Silence is an adrenaline-fueled roller coaster guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat: a masterful novel centered on the mysterious deaths of several women who were the victims of vicious cyber bullying. Is it violence if it’s virtual? The outspoken women targeted by the increasingly cruel internet trolls and bullies would probably say so. For some of them, the torrents of bile and vicious threats prove too much. They begin to silence themselves in a series of high-profile suicides. Or do they? Tony Hill isn’t convinced. But he’s the only one. Former cop Carol Jordan is too busy messing up her life to care. Until she gets an unexpected second chance. Now it’s game on, and the stakes have never been higher. Unpredictable and un-put-down-able, Splinter the Silence is a must-read that cements Val McDermid place as one of the best crime writers in the business. Val McDermid is the best-selling author of twenty-nine previous novels, which have been translated into over forty languages. She lives in Scotland.

“There is no one in contemporary crime fiction who has managed to combine the visceral and the humane as well as Val McDermid. . . . She’s the best.”-The New York Times Book Review “McDermid has a sharp ear for the dialogue and intrinsic humor of the Manchester dialect. . . . She manages, as always, to combine her wit and exuberant writing with a careful and clever plot and oodles of perceptive social observation.”-The Times (London) Bodyguarding had never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan’s wish list. But somebody’s got to pay the bills at Brannigan & Co., and if the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star, the fast-talking, computer-loving, white-collar-crime expert has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai-boxing kit. Soon, however, offstage dramas overshadow the fictional storylines, culminating in the unscripted murder of the self-styled “Seer to the Stars,” and Kate finds herself with more questions than answers. What’s more, her tame hacker has found virtual love, her process server keeps getting arrested, and the ever-reliable Dennis has had the temerity to get himself charged with murder. Nobody told her there’d be days like these . . .

Hailed as the UK’s “Queen of Crime,” Val McDermid is the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of
more than thirty novels and one of the best crime writers working today. With Still Life, McDermid returns to her
propulsive series featuring cold case detective Karen Pirie, who finds herself investigating the shadowy world of forgery,
where things are never what they seem.

When a lobster fisherman on an early morning run pulls in his traps, he finds something he wasn’t expecting to
catch–a body. When police discover the dead man was the brother of a senior Scottish government official who
vanished without a trace, Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie takes over the investigation.

At the same time, a woman in the wealthy enclave of Perth is clearing out her sister’s home after a fatal road
accident and finds a mysterious camper van in the garage containing a skeletonized body. But who is it? And how
long has it been there? The two cases will draw DCI Pirie into the world of imposters, identity theft, and art forgery.
Meanwhile, the man responsible for the death of the love of Karen’s life is being released from prison, just as Karen
was getting back on her feet.

Intensely gripping from the first page, Still Life is further proof that McDermid is writing at the top of her game.
Longtime fans and new readers alike will find it hard to put down this tightly plotted thriller.

In The Grave Tattoo, suspense master Val McDermid spins a psychological thriller in which a present-day murder has its roots in the eighteenth century and the mutiny on the H.M.S. Bounty.

After torrential summer rains uncover a bizarrely tattooed body on a Lake District hillside, a long-disregarded old wives’ tale takes on a chilling new plausibility. For centuries, Lakelanders have whispered that Fletcher Christian, made infamous by Mutiny on the Bounty, staged the massacre on Pitcairn so that he could return home. And once there, what if he could tell his story to an old friend and schoolmate, William Wordsworth, who turned it into a long narrative poem–a poem that remained hidden lest it expose Wordsworth to the gallows for harboring a fugitive?

Wordsworth specialist Jane Gresham, herself a native of the Lake District, feels compelled to discover once and for all whether the manuscript ever existed–and whether it still exists today. But as she pursues each new lead, death follows hard on her heels. Suddenly Jane is at the heart of a 200-year-old mystery that still has the power to put lives on the line.

The bodies of four men have been discovered in the town of Bradfield. Enlisted to investigate is criminal psychologist Tony Hill. Even for a seasoned professional, the series of mutilation sex murders is unlike anything he’s encountered before. But profiling the psychopath is not beyond him. Hill’s own past has made him the perfect man to comprehend the killer’s motives. It’s also made him the perfect victim. A game has begun for the hunter and the hunted. But as Hill confronts his own hidden demons, he must also come face-to-face with an evil so profound he may not have the courage – or the power – to stop it…

World-class crime writer Val McDermid has sold millions of copies of her books worldwide. In The Retribution, clinical psychologist Tony Hill and detective Carol Jordan face a terrifying reality: serial killer Jacko Vance has escaped imprisonment-and appears hellbent on revenge against those who put him behind bars. “Be very afraid as you meet a truly inventive serial killer. Val McDermid’s 25th novel is stunningly good.”-Times (UK)

Internationally bestselling crime writer Val McDermid is one of the most dependable professionals in the mystery and thriller business, whose acutely suspenseful, seamlessly plotted novels have riveted millions of readers worldwide. In her latest, THE SKELETON ROAD, she delivers a gripping standalone novel about a cold case that links to the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. In the center of historic Edinburgh, builders are preparing to convert a disused Victorian Gothic building into luxury flats. They are understandably surprised to find skeletal remains hidden in a high pinnacle that hasn’t been touched by maintenance for years. But who do the bones belong to, and how did they get there? Could the eccentric British pastime of free climbing the outside of buildings play a role? Enter cold case detective Karen Pirie, who gets to work trying to establish the corpse’s identity. And when it turns out the bones may be from as far away as the former Yugoslavia, Karen will need to dig deeper than she ever imagined into the tragic history of the Balkans: to war crimes and their consequences, and ultimately to the notion of what justice is and who serves it. THE SKELETON ROAD is an edge-of-your-seat, unforgettable read from one of our finest crime writers.

Dr. Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan return in the award-winning series that is the basis for the ITV television show Wire in the Blood.

In a small grim room, the body of a woman is discovered, panic and pain etched in her face. The scene matches in every detail a series of murders two years ago-murders that ended when irrefutable forensic evidence secured the conviction of a deeply disturbed young man named Derek Tyler.

But there’s no way Tyler could have killed the latest victim. He’s been locked up in a mental institution since his trial, barely speaking a word. So is there a copycat?

All his years of experience tell top criminal psychologist Dr. Tony Hill that there isn’t-but that would make the murders literally impossible. While Hill tries to crack Tyler, DCI Carol Jordan and her team must mount a desperate undercover operation to trap the murderer-a decision that will have terrible consequences.

In The Torment of Others, Val McDermid keeps the tension mounting, as a mixture of psychological insight and dogged detective work leads inexorably to a terrifying climax where Tony faces one of the most perverse killers he has ever encountered.

Award-winning author Val McDermid has forged an international following, earning her a reputation as one of today’s finest crime writers. In The Vanishing Point, ghost writer Stephanie Harker is entrusted with the custody of Jimmy Higgins, the young son of a reality-TV star who died from cancer. But when Jimmy is abducted, Stephanie must help the FBI figure out whether Jimmy’s relatives, reality-show stalkers, or her own obsessed ex-lover is responsible.

Across the country, dozens of teenage girls have vanished. It’s the job of criminal profilers Dr. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to look for a pattern. They’ve spent years exploring the psyches of madmen. But sane men kill, too. And when they hide in plain sight, they can be difficult to find… He’s handsome and talented, rich and famous – a notorious charmer with the power to seduce…and the will to destroy. No one can fathom what he’s about to do next. Until one of Hill’s students is murdered. Now, of all the killers Hill and Jordan have hunted, none has been so ruthless, so terrifyingly clever, and so brilliantly elusive as the killer who’s hunting them…

The Washington Post calls CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award winner Val McDermid “one of the bright lights of the mystery field.” In Trick of the Dark, forensic psychiatrist Charlotte Flint is in desperate need of a distraction after her testimony in a high-profile case comes under fire, threatening her career. Enter Dr. Corinna Newsam-an old professor of Charlotte’s-who’s convinced her son-in-law was murdered by her daughter’s new lover.

When union leader Tom Jack falls to his death from her bedroom window after a spectacularly public row with Lindsay, it seems the only way to prove her innocence is to find the real culprit. Leaving her new home in California for a trade union conference in Sheffield, Lindsay Gordon finds herself in the company of old friends and enemies, including Tom Jack. When this unethical union leader is found dead, having catapulted out of Lindsay’s tenth-floor hotel room, she is taken in for questioning by the police. Hoping to clear her name by finding the real killer, Lindsay searches among hundreds of unruly union delegates for a murderer who may have struck once before. Along the way she uncovers a seething cauldron of blackmail, corruption and abuse of power all brought to the boil by her investigation.