The Killing Room — John Madderson

Death comes in many forms… It can be expected, or come as a complete surprise. But what about murder? Murder can also be both expected and indeed unexpected, and the perpetrator can be known or unknown to the victim. But whatever the circumstances, whoever the killer, one thing is blatantly clear â€" the victim is dead, and someone killed her… Lady Diana Scott Cartwright â€" wife to the British Ambassador to Honduras, Sir James Cartwright â€" is dead. Her semi-naked body lies stretched out on her bed, though it is not immediately clear if she was raped, and whether she was killed at the scene or elsewhere. Her body has been washed, possibly showered, and certainly after her death. She has been shot in the head, the bullet entering just above the bridge of her nose and exiting high on her crown at a most unusual angle. There are similarities between her murder and that of three young gay men who were found floating in the River Thames, also naked and shot through the head at the same unusual angle. For Jack Hammond of the Diplomatic Investigation Branch, it is a very unusual case, and Hammond is not your usual investigator; in fact, neither he nor his cubby-sized office in the grubby little back-street tenement block officially exists…