The first in a series of crime novels starring the magnificent Catherine Berlin, a civilian investigator whose long-standing heroin addiction is only part of her story.
On a bone-chilling February morning, Catherine Berlin, investigator with the Financial Services Agency, finds the almost-headless body of her informant, 'Juliet Bravo', rolling in a shallow reach of the Thames. That Juliet Bravo's death is linked to an investigation of local loan shark Archie Doyle is no surprise to Berlin, but when Berlin's own unorthodox methods are blamed for the murder, she realises bigger predators are circling.
To start with, it looks as though Berlin will pay only with her job. And then, on a routine trip to her GP (one of a dying breed who will still prescribe heroin to long-term addicts), she stumbles across a second body.
Suspended, incriminated, and then blackmailed into cooperation by the detective leading the murder investigation, Catherine Berlin has seven stolen days of clarity in which to solve the crime - and find a new supplier.
On a bone-chilling February morning, Catherine Berlin, investigator with the Financial Services Agency, finds the almost-headless body of her informant, 'Juliet Bravo', rolling in a shallow reach of the Thames. That Juliet Bravo's death is linked to an investigation of local loan shark Archie Doyle is no surprise to Berlin, but when Berlin's own unorthodox methods are blamed for the murder, she realises bigger predators are circling.
To start with, it looks as though Berlin will pay only with her job. And then, on a routine trip to her GP (one of a dying breed who will still prescribe heroin to long-term addicts), she stumbles across a second body.
Suspended, incriminated, and then blackmailed into cooperation by the detective leading the murder investigation, Catherine Berlin has seven stolen days of clarity in which to solve the crime - and find a new supplier.
Taschenbuch
She was ten years old but knew enough to wipe clean the handle of the bloody kitchen knife. The night was stifling; the windows were closed sealing in the chaos. A table upturned shattered crockery. Her distraught mother bare shoulders raw with welts knelt beside her motionless father. The child snatched up her backpack and ran...
London sweats in the height of midsummer and Catherine Berlin hides her scars from prying eyes. At the methadone clinic she meets an old friend Sonja Kvist who begs her to help find her missing daughter. But the case is not as straightforward as it first appears and Catherine soon realises that in order to find the girl she must tackle a far greater threat ...
A Bitter Taste is the thrilling second instalment in the magnificent crime series featuring civilian investigator Catherine Berlin whose long-standing heroin addiction is only part of her story.
London sweats in the height of midsummer and Catherine Berlin hides her scars from prying eyes. At the methadone clinic she meets an old friend Sonja Kvist who begs her to help find her missing daughter. But the case is not as straightforward as it first appears and Catherine soon realises that in order to find the girl she must tackle a far greater threat ...
A Bitter Taste is the thrilling second instalment in the magnificent crime series featuring civilian investigator Catherine Berlin whose long-standing heroin addiction is only part of her story.