Ben Harper

It’s twenty years since my teenage brother was murdered and my mother took her own life with a broken heart. I buried myself in writing to numb the pain, but when the police knock at my door and tell me my brother’s killer has just been found murdered, my heart stops dead: the killer had letters from my mother written just days before she died. My mother believed someone else was there that night. As the police search my home, my head races with a million questions. Did my mother really kill herself, or did someone get to her before she could find out the truth?

Ben Harper's life changed for ever the day his older brother Nick was murdered by two classmates. It was a crime that shocked the nation and catapulted Ben's family and their idyllic hometown, Haddley, into the spotlight. Twenty years on, Ben is one of the best investigative journalists in the country and settled back in Haddley, thanks to the support of its close-knit community. But then a fresh murder case shines new light on his brother's death and throws suspicion on those closest to him.

When a fire burns the local community centre to the ground, our small town is abuzz with questions. I am the only witness, but when the man I saved flees the scene, the journalist in me knows this blaze was no accident. Then the police find something that makes my blood run cold: a skeleton amongst the ashes.

JJournalist Ben Harper is on his way home when he sees the flames in the churchyard. The derelict community centre is on fire. And a boy is trapped inside. With Ben's help the boy escapes, only to flee the scene before he can identified. Now the small town of Haddley is abuzz with rumours. Was this an accident, or arson? Then a skeleton is found in the burnt-out foundations. And when the identity of the victim is revealed, Ben is confronted with a crime that is terrifyingly close to home.

Madeleine is a whip-smart journalist and one of my dearest friends. So when she doesn’t come back into work after a particularly tense birthday dinner, I begin to panic. Then I get a message that chills me to the bone: It's time to settle the score. Call the police and she’s dead. Madeleine’s beaten face stares back at me from the photo, and my heart hammers at the spark of recognition in her eyes. She knows her attacker. Madeleine was always the first to get any story, and the last to worry about her own safety. She made a lot of enemies in her career, but who would want to kill her?

More than a decade ago, Madeline Wilson established herself as one of the most controversial and successful figures in modern British media. Even so many years later, she is best remembered as the figure behind a twelve-month public campaign against a man the police failed to convict of murder, which ended in a re-trial and conviction for manslaughter. Now, he has just been released. After a night out in late February with her father, Sam, and Ben, Madeline is kidnapped. What follows is a chase, as Ben and Sam seek to uncover the kidnapper, and the truth behind the original case.

When journalist Ben Harper is asked to help re-examine an unsolved murder case from thirty years ago, he immediately agrees. It's not just that the victim was also a journalist, murdered after she'd published a series of shocking interviews with victims of domestic abuse. It's also that he understands all too well the need of victim's daughter, Doctor Uma Jha, for answers.

Thirty years ago, my mother was found murdered. I remember holding my teddy bear close, listening as the police told my father they couldn’t find her killer. She was only two miles from home when she was brutally attacked and left for dead in her car by the forest-lined highway. They said they interviewed everyone in our small town, but no one saw a thing… Every year, on the anniversary of her death, I dive back into the case, hoping to uncover something new. But this year, I receive a note that turns my blood to ice: