D.I Denning and D.S Fisher

When the body of a young mother is discovered in an East London park during a blistering summer, D.I. Matthew Denning is thrust into a high-pressure investigation. As another woman dies in similar circumstances, it becomes clear a killer is stalking the city's streets. But when young, ambitious, D.S. Molly Fisher discovers a horrifying link to these deaths and a killing spree in South London a decade ago – by a psychopath dubbed 'The Bermondsey Ripper' – the case is blown wide open.

When D.I. Matthew Denning is called to a house fire in North London, he expects a tragic accident. Instead, he and D.S. Molly Fisher arrive at a scene of unimaginable horror: the bodies of the Galloway family—Brian and Ellie, their adult children Simon and Amber, and nine-year-old grandson Caleb—lying dead in the ruins. But the fire didn't kill them. Forensics confirm the family was murdered before the blaze, executed in their own home by an unknown killer who then tried to burn the evidence.

Evil lurks in the streets of East London... When retired DCI Frank Buckfield is found with his throat slit in a filthy Hackney flat, Denning and Fisher are under pressure to hunt down a cop killer. The scene is brutal, the motive unclear—and the victim's fall from grace raises more questions than it answers. Then a second body turns up: freelance journalist Magda Kilbride, murdered in a deserted East London car park, her injuries chillingly similar to Buckfield's.

As a murder detective in the Met Police, D.I. Matthew Denning is used to seeing the very worst of humanity. But when the mutilated body of a young woman is found in an East London churchyard, her face beaten beyond recognition, he is plunged into his most disturbing case yet. The victim, petty criminal Bryony Allen, has plenty of secrets – but nothing that seems to justify the cruelty of her death.