The novel opens with a teenage boy approaching a stranger in Gallowstree Lane, North London as his blood flows out onto the street. Lizzie is struggling to give Conor the care that he deserves and do her job, but most single parents feel the same way. Fifteen year old Spencer has been stabbed in the leg and bleeds out on the street while an off duty paramedic tries to assist. London understands the real, personal cost of holding the thin blue line and she brings that understanding to her characters.

Lizzie and Sarah may have been polar opposites but they cared, they wanted to protect Ryan and they prevented the novel from being cold and hard, they gave it the emotion it needed. This gives a much wider view of knife crime and how it affects different people, especially the teenagers at the bottom of the totem pole.As Sarah’s investigation threatens to jeopardise Operation Perseus and alert Shakiel Oliver to the interests of the undercover police, tensions between departments and distinct investigations threatens to muddy the waters as the competing egos of the detectives fight to prioritise their cases.

The murder threatens to derail Operation Perseus, a cover police investigation into the Eardsley Bluds, an organised criminal network. With knife crime and gang warfare on the up, especially in London, this book does reflect that culture very well. Already caught up in Perseus and with the Bluds, Ryan’s got his own demons and his own ideas about what’s important.It’s set in 2016 London and covers gang culture, crime and the knife crime prevalent at the moment amongst young men. I will be going back to read the others at some point and I will be very interested to reflect on the characters and how they are formed from the beginning. Ryan's revenge looks as though it might derail operation Perseus, a carefully constructed operation to catch a local gangster with imported guns, and DI Kieran Shaw is not prepared to let that happen.

He's happy to pick Lizzie up on what he perceives as her failings as a mother, but he's not prepared to actually help with anything practical. Told from multiple perspectives, we see the impact a murder has on the different characters, and each of said characters is developed well and interesting. It shows the emotional pressures and stress the police officers are under all the time, the mention of dealing with a rail crash it so real. The ruthless pursuit of territory, of superiority by the rival gangs the Bluds and the Soldiers was not pleasant to read, yet London’s real experience as a detective gave it an all too horrifying reality. A very gritty, down-to-earth, and gripping police procedural that while fiction does address very real contemporary issues.Have now read all of Kate London’s books and they are an excellent series, having watched the first book on TV this lead me to having a read and can highly recommend them all, enthralling, gripping and well written, thoroughly believable. I loved the personality and priority clashes which give a good picture of modern policing in all its dysfunctional glory. I just want to give a shout-out to Elaine who was a great character, and Sarah who in my opinion was the only character there with an actual moral code. The death of Spencer, in the arms of an offduty paramedic, in the Gallowstree Lane area of London, is as unflinching and hard hitting as you’d expect it to be-the violence and unecessary nature of this boy’s death spills from the page as does the blood from his femoral artery.

Kate London worked for the Metropolitan Police and if she brings the atmosphere on the streets to life, she's even better about the rivalries within the police service. And although it deals with the same main characters as the previous book I found myself not really caring about them now. Sarah and Lizzie have gripping and heart-breaking stories too, as the drama of Portland Tower comes full circle. A street girl, far gone in crack addiction, takes inspiration from her memories of Shakespeare plays (seriously?

As all three collide over how Spencer’s case is handled, there is one very vulnerable and exposed fifteen-year old, who is a vital witness, roaming free and unprotected.