When an 18-year-old girl goes missing from her bedroom, which is drenched in blood, Detectives Susan Alembic and Luke Stone are called in from the Murder Squad. But are the blood and the strange psychic, Calvin Moran, who states that the girl is alive all they seem?
A torso and legs is found at the city dump - and the unusual underwear identifies the victim as a wealthy language school owner, Victoria Symmons.
When a dealer in Islamic art is found dead in the boot of a submerged car, the race is on to find the killer.
A clear-cut case of a turf-war between rival nationalities in north London leads to the ride-by shooting of a Turkish lad and the unfortunate death of an innocent bystander.
When a dealer in Islamic art is found dead in the boot of a submerged car, the race is on to find the killer.
The dead body of a woman is thrown from the top of an apartment block, killing one of the male tenants - an accidental double murder? The investigation leads Alembic and Stone to a dating agency for married people, where the last person to see the woman alive is a regular client. DCI Turner decides that Alembic should go undercover and try to ensnare the man. He tells her a pack of lies, but she finds herself attracted to him.
Stone investigates the death of a pregnant schoolgirl found with her wrists slashed, while Alembic tries to solve the bizarre execution by firing squad of Vernon Duffy, a rapist recently acquitted on a technicality. A teacher becomes implicated in both cases - but he's by no means the only one under suspicion.
A fatal hit-and-run incident throws up a multitude of puzzling questions. The victim was seemingly killed deliberately, but inquiries soon founder amid a mass of conflicting evidence. It isn't until Alembic and Stone begin investigating an attack on Ryan Everitt, a gigolo who has miraculously survived being shot in the head by a sniper, that the driver's motives become clear.
Alembic and Stone question a suicidal girl who is suffering from a bout of hangover-induced amnesia and can't remember whether she's the mystery assailant responsible for shooting her boyfriend the previous night. They also investigate the case of a hotel chambermaid found strangled in her flat - and manage to link both investigations with the help of a stolen towel.