Scroll down to see all the books by Alison Belsham, with buy links
The Detective Lexi Bennett series
The Girls on Chalk Hill
Detective Lexi Bennett is devastated when she finds the two teenagers lying side by side on the quiet green hillside, their throats cut. Convinced this is no ordinary killer, she vows to draw on all her profiling experience to find justice for these beautiful girls who will never have the chance to grow up.
But when the victims are identified as Lucy and Eden Carter, Lexi’s blood turns cold. The sisters were triplets – and the third girl, Paige, is missing. The case suddenly feels frighteningly personal. Lexi was a triplet too, and she and her sisters were abducted as teens. Two of them escaped but Lexi’s dreams are still haunted by memories of the faceless man who took them, and her sister Rose, who she never saw again.
Her boss thinks she’s too close to the case, but Lexi is sure the monster who took her is back with a message. She throws herself into the investigation, hunting down every clue, certain that time is running out to save Paige.
Then she returns home to find the back door open and Rose’s diary on the kitchen table. As she traces her beloved sister’s handwriting, her heart breaking, Lexi swears she will not rest until this brutal monster is caught. Will the diary help her find him before Paige is killed? Or is she walking into a trap designed just for her?
The Girl’s Last Cry
Detective Lexi Bennett is walking through the quiet Canterbury streets when she hears screaming. Rushing towards the sound, she finds the body of a teenage girl lying beneath one of the city’s ancient towers. Lexi looks up at the cold grey stone, and vows that she will find answers. Did the girl jump or fall… or was she pushed?
Olivia’s distraught parents say their daughter was a talented musician with everything to live for. Lexi’s nephew, Sam, who knew Olivia, tearfully insists that she would never have taken her own life. But when a note is found, Lexi reluctantly wraps up the case.
Then another teenager is found dead on a deserted path beneath a cliff. Lexi is certain there’s a link, especially when she learns that the boy was a musician too. His note uses the same phrases as Olivia’s, and when a second person’s footprints are found at the scene, Lexi realises she is on the track of a master manipulator… and ruthless killer.
With her boss still unconvinced that the deaths are murders, Lexi races to find proof to back up her hunch, and to understand what lies behind these evil attacks on vulnerable children.
And then she gets a call that fills her with dread. Her nephew Sam is missing.
Can Lexi outsmart a truly brutal monster, or will her own family pay the price?
The Tattoo Thief Trilogy
‘Creepy and compulsive, this is Belsham’s first excursion into crime and it announces the arrival of a fine new voice’ Daily Mail
The Tattoo Thief
A policeman on his first murder case
A tattoo artist with a deadly secret
And a twisted serial killer sharpening his blades to kill again…
When Brighton tattoo artist Marni Mullins discovers a flayed body, newly-promoted DI Francis Sullivan needs her help. There’s a serial killer at large, slicing tattoos from his victims’ bodies while they’re still alive. Marni knows the tattooing world like the back of her hand, but has her own reasons to distrust the police. So when she identifies the killer’s next target, will she tell Sullivan or go after the Tattoo Thief alone?
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Her Last Breath
When a young woman is attacked and left fighting to survive in hospital, the police are pulled into a race against time to save her life. But just 24 hours later, she dies and a deadly tattoo is discovered on her body.
And when another young woman disappears, Detective Francis Sullivan and his team fear a serial killer walks the streets of Brighton.
His team identify a suspect, Alex Mullins, son of Francis’s lover, Marni. Can Francis forget their shared past and save the next victim before it is too late?
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The Embalmer
Has the ancient Egyptian cult of immortality resurfaced in Brighton?
When a freshly-mummified body is discovered at the Brighton Museum of Natural History, Detective Francis Sullivan is at a loss to identify the desiccated woman. But as Egyptian burial jars of body parts with cryptic messages attached start appearing, he realises he has a serial killer on his hands. Revenge, obsession and an ancient religion form a potent mix, unleashing a wave of terror throughout the city. Caught in a race against time while battling his own demons, Francis must fight to uncover the true identity of the Embalmer before it’s too late…
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Death in Kabul
A murdered man. A stolen artefact. A search for justice in a city where violence and corruption rule…
2003. Kabul has become a frontier city, Afghanistan’s fledgling democracy struggling with crime and corruption as NATO coalition troops, gangs and warlords jostle for control. A city where justice is an ideal and security means carrying a gun.
When the body of a British serviceman is discovered in the city’s infamous tank graveyard, the Kabul Police reach out for support in their investigation. Alasdair ‘Mac’ MacKenzie, formerly of the Metropolitan Police, is seconded to the team.
Baz Khan, an Afghan-American investigative journalist, is in Kabul researching a story. Precious antiquities, priceless artefacts of the country’s rich history, are disappearing amid the chaos, never to be seen again. Baz is determined to uncover whoever is spiriting them away, to prevent her war-torn country being further denuded for profit. And she has a lead…
The soldier’s death was no accident. Why was he so far from the British base in the middle of the night? And alone? As Baz and Mac investigate, they quickly realise they have each stumbled on something far bigger than they reckoned with, and are tossed into the Kabul underworld, where violence and corruption rule.
A fast-paced, compelling adventure through the streets of Kabul, perfect for Jack Reacher fans.
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Death in Helmand
One man murdered, another missing. A race against time…
Helmand, 2004: Afghanistan’s most lawless province, where nearly 90 per cent of the world’s opium is grown. Pink and lilac poppies flutter innocently in the breeze in fields that stretch for miles and miles along the Helmand River south of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Gangsters and warlords battle for supremacy in the lucrative trade, territories well-known, and fiercely contested.
Well Diggers, an Anglo-Dutch NGO helping the farming community, comes under attack. One man is dead and another man is missing – suspected kidnapped, so head of security Ginger Jameson calls in his old friend Alasdair ‘Mac’ MacKenzie to help.
But when the expected ransom demand fails to materialise, rumours blossom, creating a web of deceit and a multitude of false leads. Embarking on a rescue mission into the no-go reaches of southern Helmand might look like a major scoop to Mac’s girlfriend, investigative reporter Baz Khan, but it puts the whole team in danger. And if they don’t find him soon, they won’t find him at all…
From Helmand’s shimmering poppy fields to the blistering Desert of Death and the opium bazaars of Bahram Char, where nothing is as cheap as a man’s life, this is the gripping sequel to Death in Kabul.
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