Parish & Richards, Volume 1: Books 1-3

A Life for a What starts as a routine stabbing for Detective Inspector Jed Parish and new recruit Police Constable Mary Richards turns into the hunt for a serial killer who uses an unusual weapon to kill, and leaves numbered tokens in his victim’s mouths. As well as getting to know each other and dealing with the fallout from the Chief’s prostate cancer, the two new partners must discover the dark history behind the tokens and the connection between the victims. To do that, they need to gain access to the abandoned Beech Tree Orphanage where a terrible truth awaits. The Wages of After seven years, a psychopath starts killing again. He is mutilating women, and hanging them upside down in abandoned buildings with a meat hook through their ankles. Pinned to their breasts are messages in ancient languages. Parish and Richards begin their investigation, but Chief Inspector Trevor Naylor wants revenge on Parish, and the killer wants Mary Richards. Richards must also cope with the pressure of her impending National Investigator's Examination, Parish finding out that she snores, and the lack of men in her life. The investigation leads to a gripping conclusion, which involves DI Ray Kowalski and his partner, Chief Superintendent Walter Day, and Angela Richards. The Head of Forensics, Paul Toadstone, also becomes a hero. The Flesh is A grave containing the skeleton of ten year-old Amy Linton – missing for eight years – is found in Galleyhill Wood in Essex, and then Head of Forensics, Paul Toadstone, finds more skeletons in the same grave, and more graves in the woods. A reporter, who might have known something about the dead children, is gruesomely murdered, and the newspaper where he worked is destroyed by fire. Parish and Richards slowly begin to collect the evidence and put the pieces of the puzzle together, but there are other players in this game. John Linton wants revenge on the person who killed his daughter and destroyed his life; Alex Knight wants to escape from an unwanted life with MI6, but to do that she must kill Parish; and a shadowy organisation will do anything to remain a secret. As the body count rises, the Chief brings in two additional detectives to help them; Richards’ love life goes from bad to worse; Parish begins the search for his parents; and the detectives must mourn the death of two friends.