Introducing feisty Detective Constable Iona Khan – the first in a thrilling new crime series. In sun-soaked Mauritius, a retired Law Lord is brutally murdered, while in rain-sodden Manchester, the Labour Party conference is beginning. Promoted to Greater Manchester Police’s Counter Terrorism Unit, Detective Constable Iona Khan’s first case appears to be a trivial use of false identity regarding a Sri Lankan student asking suspicious questions about Manchester’s tunnel system. But when she learns the identity of the conference’s guest speaker, Iona realises it may not be so trivial after all, and she must enter the dark world beneath the city to prevent a possible catastrophe.

It starts with the death of a teenage runaway, killed when she leaps from a motorway bridge into the speeding traffic below. The girl’s identity remains a mystery – until the discovery of the dead girl’s details along with profiles of three other girls, all recently reported missing. And a further shocking discovery causes the whole file to be handed over to Greater Manchester Police’s Counter Terrorism Unit. Detective Constable Iona Khan – still struggling for acceptance in the male-dominated CTU – little realises that, because of her close resemblance to the girl who leapt from the bridge, she is now in the sights of a sinister figure. Someone whose reputation for ruthlessness has attracted notoriety, even among those who trade in the most depraved of human markets …