PROLOGUE I 2005 “Again with this crap?” Anker flung open the passenger-side door and reached one arm across the windshield. “Can’t see shit when they put it at that angle.” “Let me guess,” grunted Hardy from the back seat. He looked at the sticker Anker was waving. “Okay, that’s a new one,” he went on ..read more

A quick in and out, just as a favor. A big favor, a favor meriting repayment at some point down the line. A quick in and out – not even that actually. Breaking without entering. The alarm would kick in, though it always took time for anyone to respond. There might be cameras, but he ..read more

The girl, over those days, ate without a fuss. Maybe she was afraid I would tell on her for staining my apron, for getting flour all over the floor. If I served her chicken, she ate the chicken. If I gave her salmon, she ate the salmon. She still took an hour to eat, and ..read more

Editor’s Note THE PRESENT WORK was discovered in an old abandoned house in Devonshire, long after the last of the Braithwhite children had passed on. The author, Lucy Braithwhite, was a person of great intelligence and kindness, known for her work in medical charities during the later years of her life. But why a young ..read more

The despairing silence was broken. There was someone at the front door, knocking loudly. Helgi got to his feet. He had been sitting on the sofa with a detective novel, trying to calm himself down before bed by losing himself in a fictional world, but now the peace was over. He and Bergthóra rented a ..read more

Rudy had the expression of an abused animal on an RSPCA advert. Laura reassured him, repeating what Olivia had told her, that nobody was in trouble, but his forehead was crisscrossed with guilt and anxiety. Olivia was right. Nothing would happen. There was no need to panic. But Rudy seemed consumed with it all. She’d ..read more

Detective Chief Inspector Bob Perks nursed half a shandy in Scruffy Murphy’s and sat wishing he was more interesting. He didn’t want to be a cliché, like all those coppers on the telly, with broken marriages and drink problems, he just fancied . . . livening his lot up a little. He’d given quirks a go, but the truth was, he just wasn’t cut out for them. He wasn’t religious, he didn’t have any strange hobbies (or normal ones, come to that) and with the exception of Michael Bublé (who he adored) he thought most music was rubbish. He wasn’t like some coppers he could mention. Rats and ballroom d ..read more

· They called me a femme fatale in the media, back when that Jesse Black fiasco went down. Most people have no idea what it really means. Most people think it means badass with tits, but that’s not it at all. A real femme fatale is a villain, and I always thought of myself as a hero. At least I tried to be. Turned out they were right. May, 2011. I found out I was pregnant on my way to kill Vukasin. I’d been stalking him, online and in real life. I followed him everywhere, obsessively studying his daily habits. Letting him think he was hunting me, when I was really hunting him. I started fucki ..read more

JAKE IN THE CASE OF THE MISSING PENCIL Jake was the toughest kid at her school, Sacred Kidney. She had been the toughest kid at her previous school, too, until she was kicked out due to the circumstances surrounding an event referred to only as “the Pizza Day Disaster.” Jake swore she was innocent, but nobody believed her. Her record of sticking her nose where it didn’t belong came back to bite her…on the nose. So that school kicked her out, and she got sent across town to Sacred Kidney, a private school run by the church. There, she’d struggled to fit in, not only socially, but also into he ..read more

Hana comes out of the restroom in search of mooring, her gait made unsteady by a tumult of memories. It is Amina’s hand, of all things, that finds its way through the muddle, the way Hana held it on that darkest of nights so long ago—and again later, on the brightest of days when Amina gave birth to her only child, Sara. Years later, Hana held Amina’s hand as Sara walked down the aisle at her wedding. Hana sat with Amina the day Sara gave birth to Dylan and she held Amina’s hand as they lowered Sara’s casket into the ground two years later. The last time she held Amina’s hand had been just a ..read more