The detective is dead - Bill James

When someone as grand and profitable as Oliphant Kenward Knapp was suddenly taken out of the business scene, you had to expect a bloody big rush to grab his domain - bloody big meaning big and very bloody...

Caught in the middle of this rush to take over is Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur, who must protect his informant, the young but ambitious Keith Vine and his pregnant girlfriend Becky.

Unfortunately, his amoral superior ACC Desmond Iles is determined to keep the couple in the middle of the danger - as bait for underworld villains.

Can Harpur provide them with the protection they need? Especially when it becomes clear that Keith himself has resorted to murder.?

'With this gripping excursion [James] stakes his justified claim as one of the kings of the dark hill' Val McDermid

'This is an excellent and alarmingly realistic novel, violent but never indulgent, the plot driven by spare, witty dialogue' Andrew Taylor