by Jane Casey
First published 2025
Ilaria Cavendish has money, status, and a room at one of London's finest hotels. An hour after checking in, her lover discovers her body in a bathtub filled with boiling water. The door was locked from inside. No one entered her room. No one left. Yet someone murdered her. DS Maeve Kerrigan takes the case, grateful for something to occupy her mind. She has been worrying about DI Josh Derwent, who faces his own crisis. But when catastrophe hits Josh, Maeve becomes his only hope for survival. The question of whether they will become romantic partners vanishes. Now Josh's life hangs in the balance, and only Maeve can save him.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, adult-fiction, british-literature, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, fast-paced, gritty, intense, suspenseful
Tropes: locked-room-mystery, partner-in-peril, professional-partnership
Setting: London
Period: 21st-century
405 pages · Paperback · Hemlock Press
Content warnings: death, murder