Bea's favourite customer, Julie, hasn't been seen for weeks. Her abusive husband, Dave, claims she's left him but Bea can't shake the feeling something worse has happened. When a body is found, it seems to confirm her fears - until it comes out that the corpse is fifteen years old. Where is Julie? Who is the dead girl? And what was her connection to Bea's late father? Ant and Bea are back with their most personal case yet.
'I'm scared of anyone with a knife and a grudge.'
New Year dawns and something is rotten in Kingsleigh. With a body on the bypass and pet cats going missing, supermarket sleuths Ant and Bea have a new case. But juggling problems at work and home takes its toll and as they near the truth, more than one secret is going to come out.
"I love spending time with Bea and Ant! A simply delightful crime-cracking duo." CHRISTI DAUGHERTY
"Starring the most unlikely but endearing detective pairing since Morse and Lewis...charming, heartwarming." JOANNA NADIN
"Another brilliant Ant and Bea adventure. The series gets better and better." CASS GREEN
When a young woman is attacked walking home from her local supermarket, Bea Jordan, a smart but unfulfilled checkout girl, is determined to investigate. Colleagues and customers become suspects; secrets are uncovered. While fear stalks the town, Bea finds an unlikely ally in Ant, the seemingly gormless new trainee, but risks losing the people she loves most as death comes close to home.
Numbers that pop into her head when she looks into someone's eyes. They're dates, the numbers. Dates predicting with brute accuracy each person's death. Burdened by such grim knowledge, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. Maybe they can find happiness together, if only in the brief time that remains before his expiration date. But on a trip to London, Jem foresees a chilling chain of events: The city's a target. The clock's running out. The countdown is on to a blowup!