Kate Bendelow Knihy

"I thought I had it all figured out and was totally wrong . . . a gem of a book that you can't put down!" --Goodreads reviewer, five stars How do you catch a killer if you can't identify the victim? A scene of crime officer collects the evidence piece by piece in this gritty British mystery. SOCO Maya Barton is called to a canal where a heavily decomposed male body has been discovered. A bank card belonging to Trevor Dawlish is found in the cadaver's pocket, and the name matches that of a missing person. All seems straightforward--until Trevor's wife phones the police to say that Trevor has returned home, leaving Maya and the team wondering who the unknown male is. When it's revealed that the male was dead before he entered the water, Maya finds herself with a murder on her hands. But when another body is discovered, the case becomes further complicated. The hope is that facial reconstruction of the first victim will help solve the mystery--but it may lead Maya and her team down an even darker path. Praise for the Maya Barton series: "Bendelow proves her experience as a SOCO makes for a brilliant novel . . . stunning." --Lynda La Plante, Edgar Award-winning author of Prime Suspect

Can you always trust the evidence? Maya Barton has just embarked on her dream job as a scene of crime officer. When she attends her first death the post-mortem deems it to be non-suspicious and the case is closed. But despite the lack of evidence, she suspects a crime has been committed. Meanwhile, the police force focus on a mission to bring a criminal gang to justice. When Maya is called to another apparent sudden death her reservations resurface. She is convinced a killer is on the loose; a killer who has evaded suspicion until now, but Maya's series of mistakes alienate those around her. As she and her colleagues are drawn further into their investigations, they end up putting themselves in grave danger. Can Maya catch a killer and escape from her troubled past, or will the skeletons from her closet come back to haunt her? Who can Maya really trust? And who will make it out alive...

Who is allowed access to a crime scene? What happens when a body is discovered? Will a blood transfusion alter DNA? How can the distribution of gunshot residue inform your plot? The Real CSI - A Forensic Handbook for Crime Writers answers these questions and more in a unique and exclusive insight into crime scene investigation.