Naomi Anstruther's undercover operation among the drug gangs, planned carefully by Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur, has ended in a bloody shoot-out. Naomi escapes, but both her ex-boyfriend and her current lover—who shouldn't have been there—are dead. Now the biggest danger to Naomi is a young woman named Esme, who believes that she and Naomi should personally avenge Donald's and Lyndon's deaths. "One of the most exquisitely sardonic stylists writing crime fiction today."—Richard Lopez, Washington Post Book World "[A] black and zestful police series.... Matchless stuff by the genre's finest stylist."—Literary Review "One of the most exquisitely sardonic stylists writing crime fiction today."—Richard Lopez, Washington Post Book World "A tremendous writer. . . . Where else can you find a mystery series with as many layers of gorgeous stuff?"—Chicago Tribune "Bill James's Harpur and Iles books are deliciously unsavory.—John Harvey, "The Crime Writer's Crime Writer," The Guardian "[A] brilliantly stylish series of novels .... A unique author who is an acquired habit, but once discovered, impossible to kick."—Daily Express [London], Frances Fyfield "British mystery writing's finest prose stylist...startling, achingly funny and sometimes wholly surreal.... Essential reading."—The Observer [London], Peter Guttridge