The international bestseller that introduced NYPD detective Kathy Mallory in the case of investigating the murder of her adoptive father, Louis Markowitz.

Mallory Book 1: the first NYPD detective Kathy Mallory novel from New York Times bestseller Carol O'Connell, master of knife-edge suspense and intricate plotting.

Detective Kathy Mallory. New York's darkest. You only underestimate her once.

When NYPD Sergeant Kathy Mallory was an eleven-year-old street kid, she got caught stealing. The detective who found her was Louis Markowitz. He should have arrested her. Instead he adopted her, and raised her as his own, in the best tradition of New York's finest.

Now Markowitz is dead, and Mallory the first officer on the scene. She knows any criminal who could outsmart her father is no ordinary human. This is a ruthless serial killer, a freak from the night-side of the mind.

And one question troubles her more than any other: why did Markowitz go in there alone?

"Something close to a masterwork" - The Times

"A deeply satisfying read" - Time Out

"A cracking good thriller" - Sunday Express