Detective Chief Inspector Harriet Martens has had to make it in a man's world. After all, it was this toughness that inspired her successful Stop the Rot campaign, that has so provoked local criminals. But now two of her officers have died within hours of each other and Harriet believes both have been murdered.

In the second DCI Harriet Martens novel, Harriet faces a high-profile case, yet finds herself distracted. Could love destroy her career? Britain’s number one tennis star, Bubbles Xingara, has been murdered in the grounds of her luxurious home. Harriet is now in charge of a case that will have the world’s media – already massing for the start of Wimbledon – out in force. But it’s not the investigation that’s about to disrupt her life. For it seems that the happily-married mother, known as the ‘Hard Detective’, has fallen passionately in love with a fellow officer. As much a story of ethics and love as a detective novel, A Detective in Love does not flinch from exploring the challenges and choices Harriet faces as she navigates a murder investigation and her own thoroughly inconvenient emotions. This novel will please readers who enjoy thoughtful crime fiction and character-driven tales. ’Keating has long excelled at breaking boundaries of the genre. Here, Harriet Martens has been given the case of a murdered tennis star – probably the most important crime she's ever been called upon to solve – but her happy married life is totally disrupted when she falls madly in love with one of her subordinates. She fights her passion for Anselm to concentrate on the murdered girl. The book is a lot grittier than the giddily romantic title would have you believe.’ - Goodreads review ‘Harriet struggles womanfully to throw herself into the details of the case, but every suspect that pops up … turns out to be a red herring. And in truth, Keating is much less interested in wrapping up the mystery than in tracing the stages—predictable but by turns touching, amusing, and painful—in the course of a forbidden love that can’t possibly run smooth. Transcends Harriet’s debut ( The Hard Detective, 2000) to join Keating’s trenchant studies of The Rich Detective (1993), The Good Detective (1995), The Soft Detective (1998), and The Bad Detective (1999).’ - Kirkus Reviews Henry Reymond Fitzwalter Keating (1926–2011) was an English author known primarily for his crime fiction, although he also wrote several non-crime novels and reference books, and spent many years as critic of crime fiction for The Times .

Detective Superintendent Harriet Martens resolves to resign after the new Assistant Chief Constable at the head of the CID makes her feel inferior in her job. However, her thoughts of resignation are abruptly interrupted when the pro-hunting politician Robert Roughouse suspiciously collapses during one of his vehement speeches at an antihunting demonstration. Sensing that someone has deliberately attempted to murder Roughouse, and seeing an opportunity to prove her worth to the ACC, Detective Martens determinately takes charge of the investigation. Immersed in thoughts about what could possibly lie behind the attempt at assassination, Detective Martens decides to interview Roughouse in the hospital. However, rather than aiding in her enquiry, her visit serves only to confuse things Roughouse has been moved during the night to the privately owned Masterton Clinic, and is not accepting visitors. What could lie behind the strange series of events surrounding the Roughouse case? The talented H. R. F. Keating is at the top of his game in this latest stunning British police procedural.