A Cold Flame: A gripping crime thriller that will keep you hooked
Play with fire and you get burned…A gripping crime thriller, from a new star in British crime fiction. Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin.Five men burnt alive.In the crippling heat of August in Rome, a flat goes up in flames, the doors sealed from the outside. Five illegal immigrants are trapped and burnt alive – their charred bodies barely distinguishable amidst the debris.One man cut into pieces.When Detective Inspectors Rossi and Carrara begin to investigate, a terror organisation shakes the city to its foundations. Then a priest is found murdered and mutilated post-mortem – his injuries almost satanic in their ferocity.One city on the edge of ruin.Rome is hurtling towards disaster. A horrifying pattern of violence is beginning to emerge, with a ruthless killer overseeing its design. But can Rossi and Carrara stop him before all those in his path are reduced to ashes?
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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Copyright © Aidan Conway 2018
Cover design by Dominic Forbes © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com
Aidan Conway asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Ebook Edition © March 2018 ISBN: 9780008281182
Version: 2018-06-20
To the Memory of
Matthew Francis Fadden
1929â2016
Table of Contents
The few flowers left in the chipped vase had withered to dry brown stalks in the searing August sun.
âYouâre still sure this falls within our brief?â said Carrara as they stared at the cold, charred remains of the ground floor flat. All the bodies had now been removed but their presence lingered.
âItâs another fire, isnât it?â said Rossi. âProbably arson. Why not?â
It was not the first fire in the city to bear the hallmarks of foul play, but it was the first fatal one since they had been moved off their normal duties.
They were standing in the welcome shade of the elevated section of the tangenziale flyover, on a side street off the busy, grimy Via Prenestina. It was hot, cripplingly hot.Thin rivulets of sweat were meandering down Rossiâs neck despite the shade.
âEven if thereâs a file on this one already?â said Carrara. âA file thatâs as good as closed.â
Rossi shook his head and continued to gaze into the blackened ruins.
âItâs August. You can get away with murder in August. Who was on it again?â
Carrara leafed through the case notes.
âNo one I know. A guy called Lallana. Had a racial homicideâs brief. Seconded to us in June and then transferred out again, at his own request, now buzzing all over the place with Europol. I got hold of him by phone but he wasnât keen on talking. Says itâs all in the reports and heâs got nothing more to add.â
âGiving you the brush-off?â
Carrara shrugged.
âHe had it down as a hate crime â seems the victims were all foreigners â but not a single, solid lead. No witnesses, just the one guy who survived it.â
âA survivor?â said Rossi.
âWas. Dead now. Had 60 per cent burns. Should have been long gone but somehow hung on for nearly a week.â
âAnd all while I was on holiday,â said Rossi.
âYou canât be everywhere, Mick,â said Carrara glancing up from the notes. âI mean a break was merited, after Marini.â
Rossiâs thoughts turned then to the events of the previous winter but as his shoes crunched on the ash and scorched timbers he was still struggling to comprehend the present horror. Shooting, strangling, stabbing â that was one thing â but
