Mallory Book 6: the sixth NYPD detective Kathy Mallory novel from New York Times bestseller Carol O''Connell, master of knife-edge suspense and intricate plotting.

Detective Kathy Mallory. New York''s darkest. You only underestimate her once.

A street kid turned cop.

Fifteen years have passed since a junkie whore and a police informer, known simply as Sparrow, cared for a feral child when she was lost and alone.

Why did she let the hangman in?

Now, on a hot August afternoon, in an East Side apartment, a woman is found hanged. Carefully placed red candles and an enormous quantity of dead flies suggest a bizarre ritual. NYPD detective Kathy Mallory does not recognise her immediately. But soon finds that she is staring her bitter past in the face, as she pursues a case which also has its origin in an unsolved murder committed years ago.