‘An outstanding series’ – NEW YORK TIMES

Detective Inspector Bill Slider and his team investigate the murder of a daytime TV star in the seventeenth entry in Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’ critically acclaimed crime series.

‘It’s quiet out there,’ says DS Atherton, at Bill Slider’s office window. ‘Too quiet.’ Right on cue, the phone rings. ‘Now look what you’ve done,’ says Slider. It’s a homicide. The post-Christmas lull is officially over.

The deceased is antiques expert Rowland Egerton – the darling of daytime TV – stabbed to death in his luxurious West London home. The press are going to be all over this one like a nasty rash: the pressure’s on Slider for a result, and soon.

Egerton’s partner found the body; did he also do the deed? Or was it a burglary gone wrong? A missing Fabergé box and Impressionist painting point that way.

But as Slider and his team investigate, none of the facts seem to fit. And it soon becomes clear that the much-loved, charming Mr Egerton wasn’t as universally loved as Slider was led to believe . . .

Written with Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’ signature sharp plotting and dry wit, this hard-hitting character-driven mystery is a must-read police procedural for fans of Mick Herron, Ann Cleeves and Peter Robinson.

Praise for the Bill Slider series:

‘Slider and his creator are real discoveries’
Daily Mail

‘Sharp, witty and well-plotted’
Times

‘Harrod-Eagles and her detective hero form a class act. The style is fast, funny and furious – the plotting crisply devious’
Irish Times