Dirty Little Lies

John Macken

Reuben Maitland, the hero of this dark and violent thriller, runs Gene-Crime, the police science lab. He has discovered a new dimension to DNA-profiling; not only can he produce a physical likeness of a suspect, but he can also generate a psychological and behavioural profile. All at once he finds out that his wife has been unfaithful and that members of his team are being tortured to death one after another. Torn between his private and professional lives, Maitland is forced out of Gene-Crime to operate on the margins of legality. Only now can he begin to understand the implications of the new DNA technology, and uncover the insider responsible for the deaths of three friends and fellow forensic scientists. John Macken, himself a geneticist, has delivered a profoundly disturbing police thriller with a compelling scientific underpinning. Dirty Little Lies is the first in a series that will establish him as the new voice of dark, psychological crime.

Macken writes with authority about the science and knows how to put a tense and absorbing story together. - Observer