The Hard Detective

Detective Chief Inspector Harriet Martens has earned the nickname the Hard Detective — but she’s had to be unyielding to make it in a man’s world.

It was, after all, this toughness that inspired her successful Stop the Rot campaign, which has so provoked local criminals.

But now two of her officers have died within hours of each other. Harriet comes to believe both have been murdered — and a disturbing idea follows. For the circumstances of each death echo words from the Book of Exodus: A Life for a Life, an Eye for an Eye …

Has a killer chosen this gruesome ritual to tell Harriet she has been pushing too hard?

And if so, can she prevent the six deaths that will surely complete the quotation?

Beginning with a tooth for tooth…

Harriet Martens may find that she is not the Hard Detective for much longer…

‘The Hard Detective’ is another gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller in the DCI Martens series from master of the genre H. R. F. Keating.

Praise for H.R.F. Keating:

‘Another first-class mystery from one of the doyens of British crime writing.’ Sunday Times

‘One of his best … It really is a top-notch story.’ Birmingham Post

‘Few who pick up this latest offering from a master will be disappointed by the superior fare on offer here.’ Crime Time

‘H.R.F. Keating breathes new life into the classic detective story.’ Reginald Hill

H.R.F. Keating, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, was the crime books reviewer for The Times for fifteen years. He has served as Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Authors, and in 1987 was elected President of the Detection Club. He has written numerous novels as well as non-fiction. He is perhaps best known for his Inspector Ghote series, the first of which, The Perfect Murder, was made into a film by Merchant Ivory and won a CWA Gold Dagger award, as did The Murder of the Maharajah. A Detective in Love is the second in H.R.F. Keating’s Harriet Martens series, following The Hard Detective.