Silence and secrets ... and a ceramic rat Detective Sergeant Washington Poe is in court
fighting eviction from his beloved croft when he is summoned to a backstreet brothel in
Carlisle where a man has been beaten to death with a baseball bat. Poe is confused - he hunts
serial killers and this appears to be murder-by-pimp - but his attendance was requested
personally by the kind of people who prefer to remain in the shadows. As Poe and programmer
Tilly Bradshaw delve deeper into the case they are faced with seemingly unanswerable
questions: despite being heavily vetted for a high-profile job why does nothing in the
victim's background check out? Why was a small ornament left at the murder scene - and why did
someone on the investigation team steal it? And what is the connection to a flawlessly executed
bank heist three years earlier a heist where nothing was taken . . . Praise for M W Craven
'One of the most intriguing detective duos out there' Abir Mukherjee 'Dark sharp and
compelling' Peter James 'One of the most engaging teams in crime fiction' Daily Mail
