Book 1

The Firemaker

by Peter May

Published 6 May 1999
Margaret Campbell is a forensic pathologist from Chicago. Li Yan is a Beijing detective with a horribly burned corpse on his hands. She has a broken life behind her, a lonely future dedicated to her profession in front. He has survived two decades of violent change by marrying himself to a career which now promises, at last, to bring him the respected place in Chinese society that his family lost in the Cultural Revolution. Neither of them is ready for the consequences of asking the wrong questions about the dead man - the ones that lead to the terrifying truth.

Book 2

The Fourth Sacrifice

by Peter May

Published 6 January 2000
Li Yan and Margaret Campbell, Chinese policeman and Chicago pathologist heroes of THE FIREMAKER, meet again when Margaret s unique skills are required once more to investigate a series of ritual executions in Beijing. The first three victims were drugged, tied, labelled with a single word and a single number - then expertly beheaded. The fourth victim was dispatched in just the same way but unlike the others he was an American diplomat. Compelled to work with one another, Margaret Campbell and Li Yan again feel the overwhelming attraction that nearly destroyed them both when they first met. But now Margaret has another admirer - a brilliant, charismatic American TV archaeologist. And Li has a family tragedy that demands all his heart. Slowly they tease out the killer s secrets. But the closer they come to the truth behind the executions, the more dangerously close they come to a killer who is prepared to sacrifice anyone to conceal it.

Book 3

The Killing Room

by Peter May

Published 7 December 2000
When the mutilated and dismembered bodies of 18 women are discovered in Shanghai, Detective Li Yan is sent to establish if the corpses relate to an unsolved murder in Beijing. What she finds is the most horrifying catalogue of killings ever uncovered.