DI Jessica Daniel is having a busy day. Two prisoners escape in a smash and grab incident on the busy motorway network around Manchester. Soon afterwards one of them is found dead, hanging from a bridge over the M62. A lone pensioner fears for his personal safety and he is about to become the victim of a future crime..."He's called us ten times today and about a dozen times yesterday. He says people are breaking into his house but nobody at your end's doing anything. Sounds like a bit of a nutter to me....." There are rumours of an illegal bare-knuckled championship with the supposed appearance of British middleweight Champion Liam "nine fingers" Flanagan. There are fears of a gang turf war spilling over onto the streets of Manchester. Jessica's personal life is equally chaotic. She questions her relationship with colleague Archie Davey and the guilt she holds about fiancé Adam..."Jessica's fiancé Adam, was still in a coma, the doctors unsure if he'd ever wake up. She should be spending evenings at his side, not with another man..." She feels a responsibility to her lodger Bex, a young lady who Jessica rescued from a life on the streets. now facing the ultimate test when Bex's drug addicted mother makes an unwelcome appearance.

The author does a wonderful job of controlling all these separate threads and presenting them in a very readable and exciting form. He most certainly writes with a certain flair and panache and I love the way he starts is book with a cliff hanger and ends in the same fashion. The conclusion in particular leaves a doubt over the future wellbeing of one of the central characters and ensures that the reader will return for the next exciting instalment. A bit like those old silent black and white movies with the heroine tied to the railway track!

A great big thank you to the good people of netgalley for sending me a gratis copy of this book for a fair and honest review and that is what I have written. I most certainly will be returning for the future adventures of DI Jessica Daniel and in the hands of her creator Kerry Wilkinson that can only be a good thing as he matures and perfects his style. ( )