Detective Sophie Allen faces her toughest challenge in a gripping new mystery by best-selling author Michael Hambling

A young man’s mutilated body is found on top of the Agglestone, a well-known local landmark on Studland Heath
It seems that he was involved in a human trafficking and prostitution gang. But why is DCI Sophie Allen keeping something back from her team? Is it linked to the extraordinary discovery of her own father's body at the bottom of a disused mineshaft, more than forty years after he disappeared?

Discover an intricately crafted mystery that will have you gripped from start to finish.

If you like Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, Colin Dexter, Ruth Rendell, or Mark Billingham you will enjoy this exciting new crime fiction writer.

DEADLY CRIMES is the second in a new series of police detective thrillers featuring DCI Sophie Allen, head of the recently formed Violent Crime Unit in Dorset. An English county which includes a stunning section of the coastline, but whose beauty belies darkness beneath the surface.

DCI Sophie Allen is Dorset’s acknowledged expert on murder and violent crime. She is 42 as the series starts, and lives with her husband and younger daughter in Wareham. Her elder daughter is studying in London. Sophie has a law degree and a master’s in criminal psychology. Her brilliant mind conceals some dark secrets from her past.

DS Barry Marsh is based at Swanage police station. He's quiet, methodical and dedicated, the perfect foil for Sophie's hidden fragility.

AVAILABLE NOW DARK CRIMES, the first book featuring Sophie Allen. A young woman’s body is discovered on a deserted footpath in a Dorset seaside town late on a cold November night. She has been stabbed through the heart . . .

SECRET CRIMES: book 3 featuring DCI Sophie Allen. Two women go away for the weekend, but only one comes back alive. Was it just the music they were into? And who was the man the victim met at the festival?

BURIED CRIMES: book 4. Devastating family secrets from the past. Sisters with a murderous rivalry . . .