Two women. Two locked doors. A killer who didn’t need a key.

A young advertising executive comes home to her riverside flat, draws a bath, lights a candle. Within hours, her downstairs neighbour’s ceiling has turned lavender-pink and Melissa Phelps is dead beneath the water — strangled in her own tub, with no sign of forced entry.

DI Pippa Nash is called to the case. With DS Nick Moretti just back from holiday, her team is on it within hours.

Then DS Carl Harris of Mobile Operations turns up. He needs Nash back undercover. There’s a North London phone shop with links to organised crime — and her old cover is the only way in.

While Moretti hunts the killer from Hendon, Nash slips into a role she thought she'd left behind.

Days later, a second woman is found dead in another riverside apartment, drowned in another lavender-scented bath. The only thing connecting the victims is their phones.

Whoever the killer is, he isn’t done.

As Nash’s two cases start to collide, one truth lands hard. He knows their phones. He knows their homes. And he's already chosen who's next.

The blistering second case for London detectives Nash and Moretti. Perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, MJ Arlidge and Cara Hunter.

Meet the detectives:
DS Nick Moretti keeps his world stripped back. He lives alone on a barge in a London marina, smokes a pipe when he wants to think, and forgets to charge his phone more often than is helpful. On the job he's instinctive, well-liked, and not above bending procedure when it suits him. Off it, he's just back from the Corfu holiday he'd been promising himself for a year — and trying not to think about how short it felt.

DI Pippa Nash is the kind of senior investigating officer her bosses don't always know how to handle. Career-driven, with a long stint in covert work behind her, she runs her team by three rules: assume nothing, believe no one, challenge everything. Off-duty she rides motorbikes through Scotland, listens to Motörhead, and lives alone in a top-floor flat with no television. Uncompromising on the job, fiercely loyal to her team — and currently being asked to return to a side of policing she thought she'd left behind.

Please note, this was previously published as Cover Blown.

READERS LOVE DOUBLE MURDER:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️‘A cannot put down story!! Pace hots up to the crushing end.’ Dr. Michael A. C.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️‘Edge of seat and well written which I wholly recommend.’ Christine N.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️‘As always Ian gives us a roller coaster of a read. Real down-to-earth policing with lots of twists and turns.’ Lynne
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️‘Authentic, dark and pacy. I was literally biting my nails during the denouement!' Mrs. J. L.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️‘Once again a fantastic police procedural book.’ Julie S.