DS Woodend’s first case: A prequel to the critically-acclaimed Charlie Woodend police procedural series.

‘You should have worked out by now that nobody wants this case solved!’

These words, delivered by Eddie, a Liverpool thug brought down to London especially to put the frighteners on him, send a shiver down newly-promoted DS Charlie Woodend’s spine. Because Eddie is right. Nobody does seem interested in bringing the killer of sixteen-year-old Pearl Jones to justice. Not DCI Bentley, Woodend’s immediate boss. Not Deputy Commissioner Naylor, whose word is law in Scotland Yard. Not even the dead girl’s mother herself.

But Woodend cares. Working alone – sifting through the rubble of bombed-out post-war London and building up a picture of a life cut short – he is assailed by a growing anger and a deepening sorrow. He will find the murderer, he promises himself, even if that means putting his career – and perhaps even his own life – on the line.