WORK IN PROGRESS

A Room Swept White

Sophie's fifth psychological crime novel

You never forget the first time...

July 2009: 25-year-old TV production assistant Fliss Trinder has just received her first death threat. Fliss and her colleagues are working on a documentary about three women who have recently been released from prison after having their convictions overturned: Jennifer Leckenby, Hannah Young and Melissa Hind. Fliss's boss, producer Laurie Nattrass, has always believed passionately in the women's innocence and was actively involved in campaigning to free them, so why hasn't he been threatened? Fliss is only a junior member of the team - how does the sender even know her name?

All three women featured in the documentary were convicted of killing babies by shaking or smothering them. All three consistently protested their innocence, claiming the deaths were caused by sudden infant death syndrome, or cot-death. All three were found guilty as a direct result of the expert testimony of Professor Judith Duffy. After the women won their appeals, Professor Duffy was struck off the medical register.

A few days into filming, Melissa Hind's mutilated body is found. A week later, Jennifer Leckenby is found murdered, her body in an almost identical state to Melissa's. To Detective Constable Simon Waterhouse and his colleagues, it looks obvious on the motive front: someone is killing the freed women, someone who believes they've escaped justice and wants to make sure they pay for their crimes. But then another body is found, killed in exactly the same way, and suddenly it's impossible to work out whose side the killer's on. Because the third victim is Professor Judith Duffy…

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