Shifting Skin

The Butcher of Belle Vue’ has struck again. Like the others, the third victim has been partially skinned and dumped on waste ground, her muscles, tendons and ligaments exposed to view. Only this time her face has also been removed. Whoever the killer is, it appears he has a good knowledge of surgery. Jon Spicer and his new partner, Rick Saville, are on the investigating team. The case is waiting for its first breakthrough, and it seems to come when Jon finds a blood spattered latex glove in the vicinity of the third victim. When it’s discovered the sales rep for the glove manufacturer has been reported as missing only that morning, it appears the case could be close to being cracked. Then a woman approaches Jon insisting that she heard ‘The Butcher’ claiming his third victim in the next room of a run down motel in Belle Vue. But all she has to back up her story is a business card she recovered from the empty room the next morning. It is from a local escort agency and the name ‘Alexia’ has been scrawled on the back. Jon’s investigation takes him into the twilight world of Manchester’s escort agencies and the unscrupulous cosmetic surgery industry – ultimately forcing him to confront the propensity for violence that is in every man, even himself.