Crime Case S.
3 total works
When Detective Chief Inspector Frank Shapiro of Castlemere CID loses his right-hand man to a hit-and-run driver he has two major problems. One is his sergeant, who won't accept it was an accident: Donovan is convinced it was ordered by local crime baron Jack Carney, and he isn't the kind of policeman to be put off by lack of evidence. The other is that someone has chosen this moment, with CID already stretched, to launch a career as a serial killer.
But Shapiro finds a useful ally in the inspector sent as a temporary replacement - Liz Graham, who worked under him once before and is eager to prove herself as a senior CID officer. She's intelligent, intuitive, and ambitious; she knows she'll have to fight for acceptance in the overwhelmingly male-oriented world of criminal investigation and she won't let an angry young sergeant who resents her very presence stand in her way.
With the body-count rising and no indication that the murderer will be satisfied, Castlemere CID tries desperately to unravel the strands. As Liz delves into the professional and private lives of the victims she finds a link. But the connection is so ordinary, so innocent, that she struggles to make sense of it. Will someone else die before Liz realizes that, in the desperate mind of the killer, innocence is hiding a terrible guilt? And the person whose malevolent shadow has hung over them since this began remains to be faced in a closing act of startling violence.
When the body of teenage prostitute Charisma is discovered in the murky waters of Castle Canal, her throat cut back to the spine, Detective Chief Inspector Frank Shapiro and Detective Inspector Liz Graham head Castlemere CID’s investigation.
Close to where the body was found, a travelling gospel crusade is setting up its tent. The Reverend Michael Davey’s road-crew have no information to offer on the killing, but Detective Sergeant Cal Donovan is stunned to see among them a face from his childhood. Because Liam Brady is officially dead . . .
Then another girl is murdered while exercising her pony in a public park. The killings have two things in common: the youth of the victims, and the profoundly vicious knife wounds.
It looks as though a serial killer is on the loose and as hysteria sweeps Castlemere, Liz Graham begins to think the unthinkable . . . Could powerful, charismatic Michael Davey have brought more to the town than the promise of eternal salvation?
A town the size of Castlemere might expect to see one major fire a year. When a derelict warehouse burns down just days after a blaze destroys Rachid’s Eight-Till-Late, Detective Chief Inspector Frank Shapiro is worried. Either of the fires could have been accidental, but together they suggest an arsonist at work. A third, and fatal, episode confirms it.
Helped by his enigmatic Irish sergeant, Cal Donovan, Shapiro investigates, well aware that any delay in making an arrest will invite further attacks. But before much progress can be made Shapiro is relieved of duty, accused of destroying vital evidence in an earlier investigation – evidence that would have spared an innocent man an eight-year prison sentence.
Shapiro’s closest colleagues, Detective Inspector Liz Graham and Detective Sergeant Donovan, are incredulous: the allegation wars with everything they know about a man they have worked for and respected for years. And yet the evidence can’t be ignored.
Liz and Donovan must embark on a race against time to clear Shapiro’s name – if they can – and to track down a pyromaniac before he brings his career to a truly horrifying climax.