Detective Helen Carter Books 1–3: The Uniform / The Evidence / The Suspects

Meet the Detective Detective Sergeant Helen Carter is used to getting a rough time of it at work. As one of the few women officers around, she has heard it all before: she’s only there as a box-ticking exercise, or she only got the job because of her father, who was a detective inspector. But she can handle it. She knows she can hold her own against any man on the force. The only thing she can’t handle, however, are the constant fights with her fiancé, Ted. The Setting Edinburgh CID in the 1970s is on the third-floor of the ugly, modern concrete lump that is the police station. On a sunny day, you can look right out to Arthur’s Seat. And on any day, you can see spotty-faced, bored teenagers coming and going from the local high school across the road. With its historic cobbled streets and fair share of deprivation, Edinburgh police are up against every type of criminal imaginable. In this 3-book box set: Book 1: The Uniform Helen Carter has just landed her first case as a detective: a murder in an abandoned cinema. A mysterious clock-like symbol is drawn on the wall . . . in blood. Stranger still is what the killer left behind: the business card of an ex-cop. Since being promoted from WPC, Helen is having trouble making her mark in the male-dominated Edinburgh CID. Witnesses won’t talk to her and her colleagues don’t take her seriously. And now a body turns up in a sweet shop with a pocket watch shoved in his mouth. The clock is ticking to stop a serial killer. Book 2: The Evidence Barmaid Tina French is strangled to death on her way home from work. Meanwhile, Moira McKenzie leaves her lover’s townhouse and gets home to find her abusive husband washing blood from his hands. Later, in their garden shed, she finds incriminating photos, keepsakes and newspaper cuttings about old murder cases. When the police are called to their home, they find a pool of blood and a shattered glass table, but no sign of Moira . . . Helen knows what it’s like to be victimized. Now she needs to stop the person terrorizing the women of Edinburgh. Book 3: The Suspects Detective Helen Carter is going head-to-head with notorious cop killer Jimmy Osbourne. Eight years ago he pulled off the perfect heist and fled to Spain, leaving behind a trail of carnage. But not a shred of evidence to implicate him. Now he’s back in Edinburgh. But why? Helen has her suspicions. Within days, a mysterious jewel thief surfaces on CCTV. A gunman shoots up a seedy back-alley. The suspects are piling up, but Helen knows Jimmy is behind them. All her instincts tell her he’s guilty. She’s watching him. But he has eyes on her too . . . Can she take him down before he gets to her?