Books in the A Monika Paniatowski Mystery series

"Spencer''s deft writing and skilled plotting combine with an intriguing mix of all-too-human characters and a shocker ending to make for another outstanding entry in this excellent series" - Booklist Starred Review The fourth book in the acclaimed new series featuring DCI Monika Paniatowski DCI Monika Paniatowski has a bitter personal history with Chief Superintendent Kershaw, but that is not the only reason she doesn''t want the investigation into the sudden disappearance of his wife, Elaine, landing on her desk. A young prostitute, Grace Meade, has also disappeared, and yet all resources are being channelled into Elaine''s case alone. Monika determines to spend time finding Grace, but when a heavily mutilated body is discovered on the moors, it begins to look as if she has made the wrong decision.

It will be no easy task to fill DCI Charlie Woodend's shoes, the newly-promoted Monika Paniatowski tells herself, but, given a little time, she thinks she can grow into them. Yet, with the discovery of a severed hand, time is the one thing she does not have. When her colleagues prove untrustworthy, the urge to call Woodend for help becomes almost irresistible . . .

The second in a new series featuring DCI Monika Paniatowski Nothing could have prepared DCI Monika Paniatowski for this. It''s not that the man''s throat has been cut, or that he is naked, that shocks her - it''s the way his corpse has been so carefully posed. Is the killer sending a message? If so, to who? Saddled with a colleague she doesn''t trust, and watched by an old enemy, Monika realises that whatever the murderer''s message is, he will not stop killing until she understands.

Tensions are running high in the small mining village of Bellingsworth. There has been a call for further strikes, and retired miner Len Hopkins, who was known to be against a new strike, is murdered. Detective Inspector Monika Paniatowski learns that Len had been threatened the night before he died by another old miner.