The Cleansing

Introducing Detective Chief Inspector Tom Caton. Christmas approaches. A killer dressed as a clown haunts the streets of Manchester. For him the City�s miraculous regeneration had unacceptable consequences. This is the reckoning. DCI Tom Caton enlists the help of forensic profiler Kate Webb, placing her in mortal danger. The trail leads from the site of the old mass cholera graves, through Moss Side, the Gay Village, the penthouse opulence of canalside apartment blocks, and the bustling Christmas Market, to the Victorian Gothic grandeur of the Town Hall. Time is running out. For Tom, for Kate�and for the City. Shortlisted for the Long Barn Books Debut Novel Award Winner of the ePUBLISHING CONSORTIUM WRITERS AWARD 2011 ** It's the last thing Rob Thornton, up and coming barrister with a reputation for prosecuting rapists and wife beaters, expects. An early morning knock on the door bringing a warrant for his arrest ... on a charge of rape. Then the mysterious Angelita Covas retracts her accusation, and disappears. Haunted by her disappearance Rob sets out to find her. The trail leads to London where Rob is threatened at knife point by Angelita's Turkish landlord; warned off in Belgravia by the Russian Dimitri Izmailov, and kidnapped and threatened by James, the softly spoken Old Etonian who owns the Escort Agency where Anjelita worked. These events pale into insignificance when of a series of rhyming text messages arrive. Each message accompanies the death of someone connected to the barrister. It is clear that he is the victim of a vengeful stalker whose acts of apparent kindness are a form of escalating punishment. In subterranean tunnels beneath the heart of the city, where Mancunians sheltered from the Nazi bombs, Rob comes face to face with Angelita, the truth, and his nemesis. One of them must die; the choice is his When Premiership star Sunday Okowu-Bello is found dead, in chilling circumstances, DCI Tom Caton knows this case is going to be anything but straightforward. And with three security guards missing the last thing he needs is the newly appointed Commissioner of Police and Crime piling on the pressure. At first sight, the victim's predilection for easy sex and gambling provides both motive, and suspects. As Caton digs deeper he finds himself drawn into a bewildering nexus of gambling cartels, security firms, the victim's Nigerian sponsors, Far Right extremists, and Far East and Russian syndicates jostling for ownership of the club. When a second body is discovered in the Manchester Ship Canal Caton knows that the killing has only just begun. The National Crime Agency is waiting in the wings, and the clock is ticking ... It is Fall in New Hampshire as Naimh Caton buries her aunt Miriam, victim of a senseless hit and run. Now that she is alone in the world she decides to complete her Family Tree. Three thousand miles away across the Big Pond. Detective Chief Inspector Tom Caton is surprised to learn that he and Naimh are cousins, albeit four times removed. He is drawn into her obsession to trace their ancestors, and any living relatives. As each new member of the Caton clan is identified at home, and in Kerry in Ireland, they are cruelly murdered, The cousins find themselves in a frantic race to track down the perpetrator before they become the killer's final victims, and quite literally the end of the line A lorry full of Chinese illegal immigrants arrives in Hull. Twenty four hours later their bodies are discovered close to the M62 motorway; but a young man and a girl are missing, and still at risk. Supported by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, Caton must travel to China to pick up the trail. But he knows the solution is closer to home - in Manchester{u2019}s Chinatown - and time is running out. A cold case is about to get hot! When the body of the first victim is discovered at the Cutacre Open Cast Mine it looks like an open and shut case. Until the the second is discovered, and then a third. As the victims, and the suspects, begin to multiply, Caton is confronted by an unexpected complication in his private life. As he hurtles towards the solution he finds himself faced with an impossible choice, and an implacable enemy