In the Midst of Agony

Even in wartime, the deadliest threat can be terrifyingly close to home…

December 1940. With the Blitz devastating Britain’s cities, Lizzie Hayes and the women pilots of the Air Transport Authority are more crucial to the war effort than ever before. But when the relative peace of the village of Scotney is shattered by the disappearance of the Chief Inspector’s niece, it’s Lizzie’s training as a psychologist that draws her into another disturbing police case alongside DI Jonathan Kember.

Events threaten to overtake the pair when a local shepherdess is found murdered – and there’s something strange missing at the scene of the crime. As more bodies turn up, each bearing the same hallmark, Kember realises the campaign of terror will only escalate unless they can use Lizzie’s training to get into the killer’s mind.

With Kember’s superiors set against Lizzie’s involvement, he risks his reputation and his career – but it’s Lizzie who risks everything by putting her own life on the line in a desperate effort to unmask the murderer. With war raging around them, can they halt the killer before it’s too late?

Born in Croydon, Surrey, in 1959, Neil Daws has been a decent waiter, an average baker and a pretty good printer, but most notably a diligent civil servant, retiring in 2015 after thirty years, twenty spent in security and counterterrorism. Enthralled by tales of adventure and exploration, he became a hiker, skier, lover of travel, history and maps, and is a long-standing Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Following the death of his father and uncle from heart disease, he became a volunteer fundraiser and was awarded an MBE for charitable services in 2006. An alumnus of the Curtis Brown Creative writing school, he achieved Highly Commended in the Blue Pencil Agency’s First Novel Award 2019, where he met his agent, Nelle Andrew of Rachel Mills Literary. He is finally making use of his Open University psychology degree and interest in history, especially World War II, to write historical crime fiction. Most importantly, he has a wife and two daughters and lives in his adopted county of Kent.