Phoenix (New Blood) - Tapa dura

The 8th April 1996 was a bad day for Karen Sharpe, the eighth anniversary of something so deeply buried she had hoped to forget it ever happened. But each year it was there again, pushing to get out. And each year she tried to cope in whatever way she could. Most years she turned to booze. But this year that wasn't going to work. Sometime after midnight Phil Leech, her DS and partner on Operation Anvil, is executed in a military style killing, whilst Fiona Mitchell, his pretty 21 year old informant, ends up face up on a South Pennine moor with bullets through her face and chest. Karen had been due to meet both when drink and memories intervened, preventing her from getting there.

The police operation to find Leech's killer - Phoenix - is one of the largest in the history of West Yorkshire. Detective Chief Superintendent John Munro is the Senior Investigating Officer. He thinks two middle tier drug dealers - Coates and Varley - are the most likely suspects. Fiona Mitchell was Coates' girlfriend and both men were the targets on Anvil. There is even a rumour of a deeper relationship between Leech and Mitchell.

But Karen isn't sure. Odd details keep pulling her back, forcing her to look inside herself and examine her own unclear memories. As Munro's enquiry focuses its efforts on Coates and Varley, Karen follows her instincts to different and more disturbing clues, embedded in her own secret history. She must confront her past and act quickly if she is to prevent the seed of destruction planted eight years before from wreaking devastating and brutal consequences.