DETECTIVE CHIEF INSPECTOR JEFF TANNER, AGED 47

James’s boss and a highly experienced officer who prefers to delegate rather than investigate. He’s married with a son.

DETECTIVE SERGEANT PHIL STEVENS, AGED 39

A no-nonsense detective who got off on the wrong foot with James because he was in line for the DI job when the man from London arrived on the scene and took it. But he is now a loyal colleague who is married with two children.

DETECTIVE CONSTABLE JESSICA ABBOTT, AGED 34

Youngest member of the team and of Irish and East African descent. She’s sassy, as sharp as a razor, and not afraid to speak her mind. She has the closest working relationship with James. Her fiancé, Sean, is a paramedic.

PROLOGUE

The Fells Hotel stood on the edge of Cumbria’s stunning Lake Windermere, with unhindered views across the placid water to the snow-capped hills in the distance.

As far as Jessica Abbott was concerned it was the perfect setting for a New Year’s Eve wedding. She’d been gazing around in awe since she and her fiancé, Sean, had arrived an hour ago.

All the function rooms on the ground floor glowed with a variety of bright and colourful decorations, including balloons, eye-catching floral clusters, string lights that hung from the ceilings, and an impressive array of gilded candelabras.

When she was introduced earlier to the groom, Greg Murphy, she told him how impressed she was.

‘You’ve done a really fantastic job,’ she’d said. ‘It’s spectacular and yet intimate at the same time.’

‘I’m glad you think so,’ he’d replied. ‘I wanted it to be special and memorable for everyone who came.’

Sean and Greg were members of the same golf club and saw each other fairly regularly – hence the invitation to the wedding – but Jessica hadn’t met Greg before today and he struck her as friendly and approachable, despite his reputation as a hard and ruthless businessman.

She and Sean were due to tie the knot themselves in the summer, but no way would they be able to afford something so lavish. Sean was a paramedic and she was a detective constable with the Cumbria Constabulary based in the market town of Kendal. They were going to have to use most of their savings and take out a small loan to stage a far more modest affair for their nuptials.

Money, of course, was no object to Greg, who owned a chain of hotels across Cumbria, including The Fells.

He was now standing at the altar in his smart black suit and high waistcoat, waiting for the marriage ceremony to begin. He was tall and slim, with rugged good looks and the confident bearing of a successful man. He had a mop of dark, wavy hair and a deep baritone voice that suited him.

Jessica was looking forward to meeting the bride-to-be, Libby Elliott, who was due to make an appearance at any second along with her sister, the maid-of-honour, Rachel.

The ceremony itself was just the start of the celebrations, of course. It was going to be followed by a champagne reception and photo session in the Garden Room, then the sit-down wedding breakfast in the main hall. After that was the evening do and the countdown to midnight. Holding the wedding on New Year’s Eve had been Greg’s idea, as he wanted to enter the new year as a married man, and it meant that the guests could continue partying into the early hours.