Elena Forbes – författare

DI Mark Tartaglia spends a night in a west London hotel with a woman he has just met. When he is called out to the same hotel the next morning to investigate a murder, he realises it must have taken place while he was there. If things weren't already complicated enough, the investigation takes a new and horrifying turn when he recognises the young female victim. Still reeling from the shock, he learns that another case he has been investigating - the body of a homeless man found in a burnt-out car - is also not what it seems. Tests reveal that the corpse has been assembled from the body parts of four different people. Under mounting pressure from the media and unsure where his loyalties lie, Tartaglia must solve this new macabre puzzle before the Jigsaw Killer strikes again.

Slowly she opened her eyes and he rewarded her with one of his softest smiles, brushing her wet, sticky hair off her face, using the edge of her coat sleeve to wipe away the slime around her nose and lips. 'I don't want to,' she whispered, trembling as she gazed at him. 'I don't want to...' She couldn't finish the sentence. Die. Die with me. Be with me forever. That's what he said. You could find your new best friend on the net...or discover your worst nightmare. For fifteen-year-old Gemma, it's already too late. Her body was found in the nave of the parish church in Ealing. For D.I. Mark Tartaglia and the murder squad at Barnes, it's just a matter of time before the tragedy repeats itself. For Elena Forbes, it's a cracking start to her new career as a crime writer.

When a young woman's naked body is discovered deep in the snowy undergrowth of Holland Park, ritualistically bound and gagged, the only clue is a verse from a bizarre poem found stuffed in her mouth. The woman is Rachel Tenison, a wealthy West End art dealer, who outwardly seemed to lead a normal, fulfilled life. However, as DI Mark Tartaglia and DS Sam Donovan scratch away at the surface, a darker, secret side begins to emerge. Then a tip-off spins everything in an entirely new direction, suggesting that the case is linked to the murder a year before in North London of Catherine Watson, a university lecturer. Still haunted by the aftermath of 'The Bridegroom' case three months before, which nearly brought about their own deaths, Tartaglia and Donovan are forced to confront their personal demons as they struggle to find what these two very different women had in common before the killer has a chance to strike again.