One night. Two cases. Three deadly secrets.

Dennis Canning has been murdered. Decades ago, he destroyed an entire family—has someone now taken revenge? DI Sheridan Holler believes so, but everyone has an alibi.

Then a brutal attack leaves a colleague fighting for her life in hospital. The investigation points to one suspect, but Sheridan can't prove it. Time is running out, and the evidence she needs is just out of reach.

Desperate and haunted by the ticking clock on both cases, Sheridan crosses a line she never thought she would. She turns to someone she shouldn't trust—someone who can help her get the proof she needs, no matter the cost to her conscience or even her career.

As the cases intertwine and dark secrets surface, Sheridan discovers that some alibis are too perfect—and some crimes are decades in the making. But when you break the rules, the consequences might destroy you.

T. M. Payne was born in Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, and now lives on the Wirral with her wonderful wife.

She is the bestselling author of the Detective Sheridan Holler series. Her debut novel, Long Time Dead, went to number one in crime fiction in both the UK and Germany. The second book in the series, This Ends Now, also became a number-one bestseller, as did her third and fourth in the series, Play With Fire and Count The Dead.

She has spent most of her working life in the criminal justice system, starting out as a store detective (when she once got thrown in a river) before becoming a prisoner custody officer (when she once carried a prisoner out of the courtroom single-handedly after he started hallucinating butterflies).

She has worked in practically every London court, including the Old Bailey and Court of Appeal, and has been handcuffed to murderers, rapists, and dealt with some of the most violent prisoners to pass through the court system. In 2001, she joined Norfolk Police as a detention officer, working in the custody suite, before joining the Domestic Violence Unit as a police case investigator. In her fourteen years in that role, she dealt with thousands of victims of domestic abuse, with one of her cases earning her a chief constable's commendation. She now writes full-time.

T. M. Payne is crazy about animals and if you walk past her with your dog she will probably ask if she can pat it on the head. Or take it home with her. Or both.

She hopes to one day have seven dogs, fifteen cats and a penguin (or three).

She loves laughing, Christmas, playing golf (badly), walking along New Brighton beach (not walking her dog because she hasn't got one yet), snow, sunshine, sunsets, family and friends.

She dislikes beetroot.