A Private Investigation

Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you—and for DC Smith, that time is now, in this thrilling mystery from a bestselling author.

When fourteen-year-old Zoe Johnson doesn’t come home on a Monday night in early December, the alarm bells in Kings Lake Central police station do not ring straight away—after all, she’s from the Dockmills, one of the toughest estates in the town. But for Detective Sergeant DC Smith, due to retire in just three weeks’ time, there are some strange echoes of the case that has haunted him for the past thirteen years.

Maybe it’s simply his over-developed sense of irony, or maybe, in his final days as a police officer, Smith must look once more into the eyes of a serial killer.

• "The greatest fictional sleuth you've probably never heard of."
  The Financial Times
• "The books are comforting, the writing is subtle, and the plots are gripping."
  The Times of London
• “Grainger’s stories do what the best of literature has always done, explore the mysteries and varieties of life and what it means to be a human being… It would be hard to find a better use of reading time… I’m confident that if detective fiction readers ever decide to create their own Mt. Rushmore, the likeness of David Conrad Smith would be prominent among the honorees.” 
  American Spectator
• “The best literary detective you’ve never heard of.”
  The New York Times