In a corner of Britain untouched by the swinging spirit of the sixties, an idealistic young probation officer is assigned to a new case. His charge is a youth of cold, dead-eyed indifference, who seems destined for little more than a life of anti-social behaviour or, at worst, one of professional hooliganism.

Three decades later, women all over Britain are being slaughtered in their homes by a killer so single-minded, so voraciously brutal, vile and bloodthirsty, that he might have slipped out of an open portal from Hades.


Leading the investigation is Commander Alyson Kendal. Her pursuit...