On the surface, John Meredith appears to have it all. He’s blessed with good looks and a successful police career, and he’s never short of female attention. But is everything as it seems? What lies beneath the smooth, confident exterior? Is he a man who has simply plastered over the cracks of a dysfunctional childhood, betrayals, and heartbreak? Can he allow anyone close or will they see the joins and the damaged person that he really is?

Detective Patsy Hodge has left her old life behind to start a new job with Bristol CID. She attends a suspicious death with her new boss: straight-talking, no nonsense Detective Inspector John Meredith. Within days the body count begins to rise, as victims, old and new, are discovered to have died by lethal injection. Assisted suicide or euthanasia? Meredith calls it murder.

Tom Large is an accountant with issues, issues which are not helped when he stumbles across the body of Denise Knight. The police are treating Denise’s death as misadventure, but Tom’s cleaner, Liz Thorne, won’t accept that. She declares it to be murder, and little by little, she drags Tom out of his comfort zone as they try to establish the truth of what really happened to Denise. The unconventional pair of sleuths are doing well until Tom’s daughter reveals an earth-shattering secret.

Detective Chief Inspector Harry Grimm is forced to take leave from Bristol’s Major Investigations Team when his boss, tired of Harry chasing the ghost of his murderous father, sends him north on secondment. Used to city life and high stress, Harry fears his life will now be spent handing out speeding tickets, finding lost sheep, and directing tourists. But when a local teenager runs away, Harry finds himself pulled into an investigation much worse than anyone could have ever expected.

Former detective sergeant Norman Norman’s retirement is boring him to tears. So when he’s asked to assist an upcoming female DI and mentor a new team of misfits in a sleepy Welsh coastal town, he jumps at the opportunity. But the training has barely begun when a woman’s corpse washes up on the sand. With no reports of missing persons, DS Norman is stumped...until the post-mortem reveals a shocking hint to the culprit being local. But with a growing list of suspects who all have alibis, the experienced cop and his fledgling team’s first case could be their last.