A silent murder. A kidnapped child. A race against time to catch a killer.

It was the perfect crime: a murder from afar, the culprit escaping hours before drug lord Ronnie O’Neill breathed his last. Now a rival gang leader’s daughter has been kidnapped and the race is on to find a silent killer and a missing schoolgirl before more blood is spilt.

Senior Investigator Jo Stuart is tasked with finding the perpetrator, but when another body turns up that is seemingly unrelated to O’Neill it throws all her theories into the air, leading Jo to wonder if there’s more to the case than meets the eye.

How could the killer commit a murder hours before the victim died? With a child’s life on the line and a murderer who shows no sign of stopping, Jo and her team are running out of time. Silence has never been more deadly.

Bill Rogers is the author of ten earlier crime fiction novels featuring DCI Tom Caton and his team, set in and around Manchester. The first of these, The Cleansing, was shortlisted for the Long Barn Books Debut Novel Award and was awarded the e-Publishing Consortium Writers Award 2011. The Pick, The Spade and The Crow was the first in a new series featuring Senior Investigator Joanne Stuart, on secondment to the Behavioural Sciences Unit at the National Crime Agency, located on Salford Quays, Manchester. SI Jo Stuart first appeared as a promising junior member of Tom Caton’s team. Formerly a teacher and schools inspector, Bill has four generations of Metropolitan Police officers behind him. He is married with two adult children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He lives near Manchester.