It's the phone call DI Jon Spicer has long feared - his wild younger brother has been found dead. He has been murdered and horribly mutilated. Aware Dave was involved in drugs, Jon had hoped to steer him away from his doomed and self-destructive fate. Full of anger, he heads to the town where Dave's body was discovered, bent on finding the killer. Meanwhile, Dave's young girlfriend, Zoe, is trapped in an inner-city hell. Vulnerable, destitute and now alone, she is being hunted by the vicious criminal Dave owed money to. Arriving in the Peak District, Jon finds a community with plenty to hide. With time running out and his distraught family cracking under the strain, Jon realises the truth of his brother's death lies in two places: with a frightened girl trapped somewhere among Manchester's tower-blocks and out on the bleak heights overlooking the secretive rural town.

Author Biography

Chris Simms' acclaimed novel, KILLING THE BEASTS was selected as a Best Crime book for 2005 by Shots magazine. His second novel, Pecking Order, was selected as a Best British crime novel by Deadly Pleasures magazine. He was also selected as a Waterstone's Author for the Future, one of 25 writers tipped by publishers, editors and agents, to produce the most impressive body of work over the next quarter century. In 2008 he was nominated for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year and for a Crime Writer's Association Dagger. Chris lives in Manchester.