Dead Fish

By Ruth Carrington

Dr Geoffrey Quinn arrives home in the middle of the night to find his children missing, the charred remains of his wife’s body chopped up in the boiler and Chief Superintendent Manning waiting to arrest him for her murder.

Enter Alison Hope, a barrister specialising in crime. Quinn claims he is innocent but Alison, hired to defend him, is unsure. And when she learns of Quinn’s involvement in a gangland murder trial – since the end of which several others involved have died by violent means – Alison begins to wonder …

The background becomes increasingly seedy – exploitative sexual gratification, raves, drugs, blackmail, illegal arms dealing and major fraud all play their part. But do any of these discoveries prove Quinn’s guilt? Or will Alison find the truth in time to save him?

Dead Fish starts as an apparently conventional crime story but gradually evolves into a dark psychological thriller.