Parish and Richards are on a body hunt. Xena – with the help of Charlie Baxter, Cookie and Jenifer – conducts an investigation from her hospital bed to prove Stick is innocent, even though he won’t help himself. Kowalski can’t concentrate on his job with Jerry in a drug-induced coma in the hospital, so he tackles an unsolved cold case from the 1980s called the Red Spider murders.

A serial killer returns to butcher a fourth family and carve a symbol into the flesh of a little girl's forehead. Ex-Detective Inspector Cole Randall is released from Springfield Asylum after a year of being committed indefinitely for killing the previous three families - including his own. Now he's operating outside the law and he's out for revenge, then he plans to join his wife and children.Randall's ex-partner - Detective Inspector Molly Stone - has been given the case, but she only has seven days to solve the riddle of the symbols and how a renowned international financier can be in two places at the same time. She knows Randall is now a civilian and wants revenge, but she also knows she needs his help, and she agrees to an unorthodox partnership.As they hunt a serial killer, Randall looks for redemption, but finds love; and Molly searches for love, but finds terror.

Parish & Richards are given the case of a gifted boy murdered on the fourteenth green at the local golf course; Richards is also trying to find out if a 1966 diary that she bought at a car boot sale, and written by a captive 15 year-old girl called Loveday, is genuine. Stick and Xena are working to solve the case of a young woman found in a wood.

Parish & Richards have two cases to solve. One turns out to be unfinished business, the other is very close to home. Angie struggles to come to terms with her new baby. Kowalski is promoted, but someone is out to ruin him. Two detectives join the team, and are allocated the case of five bodies discovered in the grounds of a house.

If you've read Chapter 1 you'll know that DCI Marshall has taken the place of Chief Walter Day, transferred Kowalski to Traffic Analysis, and is taking an active role in running the investigations... But what you don't know is that DCI Marshall has an agenda!

Parish & Richards are sent to Cyprus to discover if a British Army officer being held by the Cypriot police is responsible for murdering a local woman and the disappearance of three other women, or whether he is being made a scapegoat by the anti-British elements of the Cypriot government.

Parish and Richards travel to Quantica, Virginia, and they stumble over an American serial Killer called The Painter. Chief Kowalski and his wife Jerry are accused of Satanic Ritual Abuse of their children, who are taken away by Social Services - Kowalski has another heart attack and ends up in hospital... The story continues.

Parish and Richards investigate a case involving recently pregnant headless bodies disposed of in the sewers. Not only do they struggle to discover the identity of the victims, but they can't find the babies either. Kowalski and Nash investigate the death of a landlady who has been bludgeoned to death and a withered flower left on the body.

Parish, Richards and a DI from Norwich investigate the death of a child, which is linked to child abductions across the southeast. Parish also receives a severed tongue and a location in the post. In his search for Jerry, Kowalski must travel to Wales to find out the truth behind his wife’s disappearance. During his travels he must help a desperate Cookie who is on the run.

Parish & Richards must find a killer who is carving broken hearts on women's abdomens. Stick & Xena have the case of a severed hand, but Xena has her own problems. Jerry gets involved with a woman who thinks someone is trying to kill her, so she asks Cookie for help who gets herself into serious trouble in doing so. Parish & Richards finally get the chance to visit the Excess Bagage depot.

Novella (21,000-words): It’s All Hallows Eve! DI Quigg has a new partner – DC Jezebel Rummage – but she’s not all she seems. Seven children have gone missing in one month from the Ragged Children’s Home in Bethnal Green. As far as anyone is concerned, the children are runaways, but when Quigg and Rummage investigate they find something a lot more sinister.