Leigh Russell – författare

In the tradition of Ruth Rendell, Lynda La Plante, Frances Fyfield, and Barbara Vine, Cut Short is a gripping psychological thriller that introduces Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel, a woman whose past is threatening to collide with her future.D.I. Geraldine Steel relocates to the quiet rural town of Woolsmarsh, thinking she’s found a restful place where she can battle her demons in private. But when she finds herself pitted against a twisted killer preying on young local women in the park, she quickly discovers how wrong she is ...When an unwitting bystander comes forward as a witness, she quickly becomes the murderer’s next obsession. And Geraldine Steel is locked in a race against time, determined to find the killer before yet another victim is discovered. But can she save the lives of the town’s young women—or will Geraldine herself become the killer’s ultimate trophy?

When a man dies in a gas explosion, the police suspect arson. The Murder Investigation Team is called in to examine the evidence, but the case takes on a new and terrible twist when a local villain is viciously attacked.

As the police inquiries lead from an expensive Harchester Hill estate to the local brothel, a witness dies in a hit-and-run. Was it coincidence … or cold-blooded murder? The Murder Investigation Team has problems of its own—and so does Geraldine Steel. A shocking revelation threatens her peace of mind as the investigation races toward its dramatic climax.

When headmistress Abigail Kirby’s corpse is discovered in the woods, police are shocked to learn that her tongue was cut out while she lay dying. Then, shortly after a witness comes forward, he is blinded and murdered. With mangled bodies appearing at an alarming rate, Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel must race against time to find the killer before he claims his next victim …

Two brutal murders. No witnesses.

The battered bodies of two young girls are discovered in North London, one shortly after the other. Desperate to avoid hysteria in the community, the police struggle to make a quick arrest before the deranged killer can strike again. Not having any luck, Detective Geraldine Steel, recently transferred to London, is called in to make sense of the grisly murders and the killer''s unusual signature: he extracts two teeth from each of his victims. With the death toll mounting, Geraldine is running out of time as she hunts for the elusive killer the papers have dubbed "The Dentist."

Revenge never felt so good ...

When a successful businessman is brutally murdered, a long list of suspects develops that is filled with colleagues, ex-lovers, and debt collectors. But no one is more suspicious than his beautiful wife and her young lover. That is, until the victim's business partner suffers the same gruesome fate and another murder, seemingly unconnected except for the killer's signature, occurs soon after. Confounded, Detective Geraldine Steel is left with only one more lead: DNA at the crime scenes pointing to two women—one dead and one in prison.

With a steady stream of bodies arriving at the morgue, Detective Geraldine Steel and her team are in a race against time to stop a vicious killer.

When three dead bodies are discovered in Detective Ian Peterson's hometown of Kent, it becomes clear that a vicious killer is on the loose. And without his trusted colleague, Detective Geraldine Steel, by his side, Ian's left to take the lead on a complex murder case with few clues.

The first victim is a middle-aged woman named Martha, brutally stabbed to death in the local park. Her husband, who did not report her missing, is the prime suspect until a young prostitute, Della, reveals his whereabouts the night Martha was murdered. But then she is strangled to death in her apartment. While the police are frantically gathering evidence and looking for a connection, a second prostitute is suffocated.

With nothing but the timing of the murders to tie the three women to one another, Ian and his new partner, Polly Mortimer, struggle to make sense of the case and find the elusive killer before he strikes again. But by the time Ian realizes the truth, it may be too late to save Polly.

A man plummets to his death during the York Races. Despite the large crowds, no witnesses are able to help confirm whether the death was a suicide or a murder. Newly promoted, Detective Ian Peterson is plunged into the complex case that splashes across the headlines. Meanwhile the killer has begun to hunt his next victim, and before long the body count increases. With pressure to solve the crimes mounting, Ian must put aside his personal life despite pressure from his wife. But the killer is following the investigation far more intensely than Ian realizes, and time is running out as the case suddenly gets a lot closer to home . . .

''Leigh Russell is one to watch'' - LEE CHILD

DI Ian Peterson investigates a series of gruesome and brutal murders. With a madman on the loose attacking women with a deadly, but unusual weapon, all of York is on alert. As the body count rises, the case demands all of Ian''s ingenuity, because the seemingly random murders are all but clueless.