The body found under the hedge was that of a middle-aged woman, biggish and gaunt. There was nothing to give Detective Chief Inspector Wexford her address, her occupation or even her identity - let alone any clues which might lead to her killer.

Out of the blue, Henry Nagel receives a solicitor's letter telling him he has inherited a sumptuous apartment in St. John's Wood. He is glad to escape the north, where there is nothing and no one to keep him. After nearly 60 years of disappointment, his life is about to change.

Along rainshot streets with the stash riders, a posse of hip malcontents, hooked on the powerful drug you can imagine - Vurt feathers - But as the Game Cat says, Be careful, be very careful.

A killer is on the loose and he's blurring the line between fact and fiction. His prey - the writers of crime novels. But this murderer is like no other. And for one woman the desperate hunt to uncover his identity becomes a matter of life and death. This is a thriller from the award-winning Val McDermid.

Mary Barton, the daughter of disillusioned trade unionist, rejects her working-class lover Jem Wilson in the hope of marrying Henry Carson, the mill owner's son, and making a better life for herself and her father. But when Henry is shot down in the street and Jem becomes the main suspect, Mary finds herself painfully torn between the two men.

Gold Dagger Award winning serial killer thriller introducing Tony Hill, criminal profiler and now hero of 'The Wire in the Blood', the hugely successful TV drama series.