The Tantalus Case

The Tantalus Case is the first in a series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Jeremy Aitken and his partner Detective Constable Louise Allen. They operate in the Metropolitan area with headquarters at Railton Police Station. Their boss is Frank Purbright the Chief Superintendent at Railton. He rules with a rod of iron. He is tough but fair. Purbright has every connection known to man whether it is in the shady underworld or at the top of government. He is less than two years away from retirement and is grooming Aitken as the heir apparent.

In the Tantalus Case a young accountant, Amy Anderson is brutally murdered at home in front of her family. Two gunmen burst into where she is having breakfast with her parents and her brother. She is executed in front of their eyes and the gunmen are out the door and gone. In ten brief seconds their lives are changed forever.

For Aitken and Allen this will be the start of a long and convoluted trail as they try not just to track her killers but try to find out why she was executed.

In Greek mythology Tantalus stood in a pool of water under the branches of a tree laden with fruit. When he reached to pick to fruit, the tree would move its branches so that Tantalus never quite reached the fruit. It was the same with the water. When he tried to fill his water carrier or drink from the pool the water would simply retreat. The fruit like the water would remain forever tantalisingly just out of reach.

So it is for Aitken and Allen that the mysterious Wendell Fanshawe would remain tantalisingly elusive. They have very early successes by quickly identifying the assassins who killed Amy but that would prove to be nothing more than the tip of the iceberg. The iceberg is submerged in a sea of international power and corruption. This takes Aitken and Allen to Singapore in an effort to find out the big question. Why was Amy Anderson murdered? The answer, if they can find it involves the key to hugely criminal activities.

Join Aitken and Allen as they finally bring closure to the anguish of the Anderson family’s ten seconds of hell.