Nighthawk
4 total works
A lone German bomber crosses the east coast of Britain on a moonless night in the long, hot summer of 1940. The pilot picks up the silver thread of a river and, following it to his target, drops his bomb over Cambridge's rail yards. The shell falls short of its mark and lands in a neighbourhood of terraced streets on the edge of the city's medieval centre.
DI Eden Brooke is first on the scene and discovers the body of an elderly woman, Nora Wylde, in a house on Elm Street, two fingers on her left hand severed, in what looks like a brutal attempt by looters to steal her rings.
When the next day Nora's teenage granddaughter Peggy, a munitions worker, is reported missing, Brooke realises there is more to the situation than meets the eye.
DI Eden Brooke is first on the scene and discovers the body of an elderly woman, Nora Wylde, in a house on Elm Street, two fingers on her left hand severed, in what looks like a brutal attempt by looters to steal her rings.
When the next day Nora's teenage granddaughter Peggy, a munitions worker, is reported missing, Brooke realises there is more to the situation than meets the eye.
1939, Cambridge. The opening weeks of the Second World War, and the first blackout - The Great Darkness - covers southern England, enveloping the city. Detective Inspector Eden Brooke, a wounded hero of the Great War, takes his nightly dip in the cool waters of the Cam. The night is full of alarms, but in this Phoney War, the enemy never comes.
But daylight reveals a corpse on the riverside, the body torn apart by some unspeakable force. Brooke investigates, calling on the expertise and inspiration of a faithful group of fellow 'nighthawks' across the city, all condemned, like him, to a life lived away from the light. Within hours The Great Darkness has claimed a second victim. War, it seems, has many victims. But what links these crimes of the night?
But daylight reveals a corpse on the riverside, the body torn apart by some unspeakable force. Brooke investigates, calling on the expertise and inspiration of a faithful group of fellow 'nighthawks' across the city, all condemned, like him, to a life lived away from the light. Within hours The Great Darkness has claimed a second victim. War, it seems, has many victims. But what links these crimes of the night?
Cambridge, 1940. Snow is falling thick and fast on a cold winter's night. As a college porter makes his nightly rounds, he is startled to hear a boy's desperate screams for help coming from the icy river below. But by dawn the river has claimed its victim.
When the following night an Irish Republican slogan is left at the scene of a factory explosion, Detective Inspector Eden Brooke questions whether there could be a connection between the two events. As more riddles come to light, he begins to close in on a killer, but there is one last twist: it seems that the boy had his own startling secret.
When the following night an Irish Republican slogan is left at the scene of a factory explosion, Detective Inspector Eden Brooke questions whether there could be a connection between the two events. As more riddles come to light, he begins to close in on a killer, but there is one last twist: it seems that the boy had his own startling secret.
Spring 1941. It is the third year of war, and when the siren sounds the people of Cambridge trudge to the city's public bomb shelters. Crowded, smoky, often raucous, the shelters have become a way of life for the poor. At dawn, the body of a young man is found in a shadowy corner of the Trinity Shelter, one of three on the city's great open space - Parker's Piece.
Detective Inspector Eden Brooke searches the body and finds no wallet or papers, save for a cinema ticket dated six months earlier. PC Vanessa Hill - a recruit to The Borough police from Girton College - uses her skills in fine art to sketch the dead man's face for a poster. An autopsy reveals the only clue to his death is the wound left by a hypodermic needle in the back of his neck. Brooke has a very puzzling case on his hands .
Detective Inspector Eden Brooke searches the body and finds no wallet or papers, save for a cinema ticket dated six months earlier. PC Vanessa Hill - a recruit to The Borough police from Girton College - uses her skills in fine art to sketch the dead man's face for a poster. An autopsy reveals the only clue to his death is the wound left by a hypodermic needle in the back of his neck. Brooke has a very puzzling case on his hands .