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A must read for any fans of the crime-thriller genre...’

The Skinny

PERFECT DEATH

HELEN FIELDS

25 JANUARY 2018

The new release you need to read from the 2017 crime thriller bestseller.

‘Without doubt, this is one of the best detective series I have read.’ 

Woman’s Way Magazine

Your new addiction starts here: get hooked on the #1 bestselling series. Perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and M.J. Arlidge.

There’s no easy way to die…

Unknown to DI Luc Callanach and the newly promoted DCI Ava Turner, a serial killer has Edinburgh firmly in his grip. The killer is taking his victims in the coldest, most calculating way possible – engineering slow and painful deaths by poison, with his victims entirely unaware of the drugs flooding their bloodstream until it’s too late.

But how do you catch a killer who hides in the shadows? A killer whose pleasure comes from watching pain from afar? Faced with their most difficult case yet, Callanach and Turner soon realise they face a seemingly impossible task…

Helen Fields is the crime name that EVERYONE needs to know about. 

Helen Fields studied law at the University of East Anglia, then went on to the Inns of Court School of Law in London. After completing her pupillage, she joined chambers in Middle Temple where she practised criminal and family law for thirteen years.

After her second child was born, Helen left the Bar. Together with her husband David, she runs a film production company, acting as script writer and producer. Perfect Remains is set in Scotland, where Helen feels most at one with the world. Helen and her husband now live in Hampshire with their three children and two dogs.

Extract Twelve: Chapter 55, pp.358-359

‘The pathologist’s report states, “The victim was female, aged between twenty-two and twenty-five years. She had been dead for approximately two weeks. Decomposition was well underway. The material of the chair beneath and surrounding the body was soaked with leaked fluids, although it is possible that contents of both bladder and bowel were emptied whilst the victim was still alive. Cause of death was respiratory failure following opioid use. Extremely high levels of opioids were found in blood and tissue samples. Needle marks on arms suggest long-term drug use prior to the massive dosage that rendered her unconscious and stopped her from breathing. Brain function would have ceased thereafter. One particularly marked, poorly administered needle puncture wound into her left outer thigh leaves unresolved questions. It is unlikely that this was self-administered. Evidence suggests that the deceased was right-handed and thus self-injecting the outer left thigh was unlikely. The puncture wound was large at the surface, suggesting severe force and movement when it was administered, unlike normal regular drug user entry marks. A 4cm scratch below the puncture wound suggests carelessness or roughness with the needle point on exit. Bruising around the puncture wound is consistent with extreme force in inserting the needle. The puncture wound goes directly in at 90 degrees to the outer surface of the leg, unlike usual drug needle entries. This is the only needle puncture wound on her legs, and there is no scarring on this area of her body. Additionally, she had lacerations and bruising to her face suggesting a fight some time prior to death. She had unset ageing fractures, and a new fracture to her cheek bone that had not begun to heal.” That’s the main thrust of it,’ Monroe said.

‘But Cadogan died in police custody,’ Ava said. ‘What was the cause of death?’

‘Apparently he hung himself with a sheet. This happened twenty years ago. No CCTV in the cells. No one saw it, no one was ever charged,’ Monroe said.