Blood Sinister — Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Award-winning ex-Guardian hack Phoebe Agnew had a name for championing the underdog -- and for attacking the police in print. When her trussed and strangled body is found in her chaotic flat, Detective Inspector Slider must demonstrate the impartiality of the law and find her killer.

On the day of her death the horribly undomesticated Agnew cooked an elaborate meal for someone. It may have been her old friend and reputed lover, the government advisor Josh Prentiss, but his powerful Home Office friends are pressuring Slider to look elsewhere. Unidentified fingerprints, a missing ligature, alibis offered when none is required -- Slider is on a race against time to untangle the web of lies and hidden relationships. For Phoebe Agnew was concealing a secret, which someone is willing to kill -- and kill again -- to protect...