First published 1993
A nameless detective from the Met's Unexplained Deaths division stares at five shopping bags in a London warehouse. Inside lies what remains of a man, carved up and packaged like meat. The detective begins his investigation in the grimy streets of South London, following leads through a landscape of violence and depravity. Each step deeper into the case pulls him closer to horrors he never expected to face. The killer proves more dangerous than anticipated, but the real threat comes from somewhere else entirely. As the detective digs into the victim's final days, fragments of his own buried past surface. The memories he has tried to forget now demand attention. What started as a routine murder investigation becomes something far more personal and devastating. The detective must confront not only a brutal killer but also the darkness he carries within himself.
Genres: mystery, crime, detective, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: dark-protagonist, unreliable-narrator
Setting: London, South London
Period: 20th-century
278 pages · Paperback · Time Warner Paperbacks
Content warnings: graphic-violence, murder, violence