A brutal heatwave has the city on edge. Tempers are fraying, the streets are restless, and the police are stretched to breaking point. It's the worst possible time for Detective Erin Loxleyne to stumble onto something that powerful people need to stay buried.
The first death looks like misfortune. A senior public official, found at his desk, no sign of foul play. The second looks like coincidence. A CPS lawyer, collapsed at home, nothing out of place. But Loxleyne has spent her career learning to read what's missing from a scene and both scenes are missing too much.
As she traces the connection between the victims, she finds herself pulled back to a case from her past: an investigation that was shut down without explanation, sealed without closure, and protected by people with the authority to make questions disappear. It nearly ended her career once. Now it may do far worse.
With institutional pressure mounting, warnings arriving from unexpected places, and the killer moving with the confidence of someone who knows exactly how the system works, Loxleyne finds herself fighting on two fronts, the investigation in front of her, and the one buried beneath it.
Dead Heat is a taut, atmospheric thriller that announces Detective Erin Loxleyne as a heroine built for the long game, sharp, stubborn, and impossible to stop.
When a gangland hit erupts in the middle of a quiet Kent high street, Detective Erin Loxleyne is one of the first to respond. One glance at the scene tells her the truth: this is no routine execution. The victim isn’t a low-level runner, he’s a courier carrying something dangerous enough to justify murder in broad daylight.
Hours later, another killing detonates on a different estate. New crew, same precision, same message. The county braces for a turf war, but Loxleyne recognises a deeper pattern beneath the violence. These attacks aren’t chaotic. They’re choreographed.
As panic spreads through Kent's communities, Loxleyne follows a trail that leads her through backroom dealings, coded messages, and alliances hidden behind decades of criminal history. But every step she takes is interfered with. Leads vanish from databases. Forensics go missing. Informants clam up or disappear entirely. Even her colleagues begin to obstruct her. Someone inside the force is sanitising the evidence, and they know she’s getting too close.
The violence on the streets is only the smokescreen for a far more calculated operation involving organised crime, illegal arms, and a power struggle that cuts deeper than any turf dispute. With trust evaporating and the threat closing around her, Loxleyne must decide whether to back down or risk everything to expose the truth. Because the war consuming Kent isn’t about territory. It’s about control. And Detective Erin Loxleyne is standing dead centre in the crossfire.