Convicted serial killer, Melkior Pendred, spent the final years of his life dying in prison for five identical murders. He slit the victims' throats, eviscerated the bodies and scattered the organs at the scene of the crime.

But that was buried in local history until a sixth murder is committed...

The body of Jenny Muir is discovered in the same fashion but with the supposed killer now dead, panic sets in... Martin Pendred, Melkior's twin, identical in appearance, personality and work life, is propelled into the spotlight.

Like his brother, he worked first in an abattoir, then as a mortuary assistant and was only discounted of the original murders by an alibi. Did the police convict the wrong brother?

Pressure rises in the force as Chief Inspector Homer returns to his original hypothesis that his colleague, Beverley Wharton, caught the wrong man.

Martin Pendred is arrested but released on a technicality after the intervention of his solicitor, Helena Flemming. Then Martin disappears and another murder takes place. What's left to do but to call in John Eisenmenger?

A former pathologist, Eisenmenger worked on the original murders and his finely honed skills could make all the difference to this nerve-wracking case.

Indeed he soon begins to guess what is going on, but it is not until danger threatens Helena Flemming that he is able to find and fit the last terrible piece of the killer's puzzle.

Praise For Keith McCarthy:

'Readers who don't get enough strong forensic medicine from the likes of Patricia Cornwell or Kathy Reichs... will welcome this first book in a new series from a British pathologist... McCarthy lays on the grisly detail with a practising doctor's detached eye.' - Publishers Weekly

'Richly gothic... uses the classic whodunit format of a closed circle of suspects to good effect. There's a giddy feeling to the story when we lurch from moments of black farce to savage coincidence... a potent mix.' - Tangled Web

'Pathologist McCarthy creates a dark, densely imagined world in the demanding tradition of P. D. James... he peoples it with characters who truly inspire pity and terror, and provides the most unsparing postmortem ever.' - Kirkus Reviews

Keith McCarthy is a pathologist and writer of crime fiction, known for his Eisenmenger-Flemming Forensic Mysteries. He also writes under the name Lance Elliot.

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• Crime, Thriller & MysteryThrillersMedical
• Crime, Thriller & MysteryMysteryPolice Procedurals

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