He came to fight the fire. Someone made sure he died in it.

A wildfire is tearing across the North Pennines when a burning man staggers out of the flames. Detective Chief Inspector Jack Harris races to help him. He’s too late.

The dead man is firefighter Barry Mayhew. But beneath his burns, the pathologist discovers two shotgun wounds. One in each leg.

Someone wanted him alive when the flames reached him.

A former soldier, Harris has seen punishment shootings before. This was meant to end in death.

Yet the man everyone knew as Barry Mayhew proves remarkably difficult to trace. At the classic-car garage where he worked, he claimed he was visiting his sick mother — but this woman doesn’t exist. The trail leads instead to a hospital children’s ward, a desperately ill baby — and a woman terrified of anyone coming through the door.

She knew Barry by a different name.

With the raging fire threatening the hillside cottage he shares with his two rescue dogs, Harris must uncover what the firefighter was hiding.

Then he hears of another dead mechanic. He too was shot in the legs.

They say just six handshakes connect any two people. Harris needs to trace the connections between a dead man’s different lives.

Every hand the dead man shook leads Harris to another victim.

One of them leads to his killer.

An atmospheric British police procedural for fans of Peter Robinson, Ann Cleeves, J.D. Kirk and L.J. Ross.

MEET THE DETECTIVE:
DCI Jack Harris knows the North Pennine hills better than most people know their neighbours. An ex-soldier who left Manchester’s organised crime unit burnt out, he now runs CID in the valley where he grew up. Home is a cottage halfway up Dead Hill, shared with rescue dogs Scoot and Archie, who ride everywhere in his police Land Rover. Blunt, impatient and unimpressed by rank, Harris has little time for excuses — especially from his own side. He’s also the area’s wildlife liaison officer. Harm something on his patch, human or otherwise, and you’ll have him to answer to.

THE SETTING:
High moorland, remote valleys and sheer escarpments where peregrines nest. The North Pennines are home to scattered farms and small market towns, where a detective’s private life rarely stays private for long. Harris loves these hills. But after weeks without rain, the grass is tinder-dry — and someone knows exactly where to strike a match.

READERS LOVE THE DCI JACK HARRIS THRILLERS:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Terrific book in great series.’ Jane A.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Great to have Jack Harris back.’ Susan G
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Tense and filled with action. I highly recommend this book.’ Beth P.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Brilliant! Thoroughly recommend.’ Kindle Customer
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Great. I have really enjoyed every one of the books.’ Graeme W.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Terrific police procedural.’ Father Ted
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Gripping thriller.’ Cozmo
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Crime fiction as cunning as a fox.’ Beck
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Good plot with plenty of red herrings.’ KC
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Keeps you guessing to the end.’ Tammie