Casual Cruelty (The Matt Dixon Mysteries 5)

Zac Steele is an author making a modest living from writing horror stories. When he receives a note threatening to kill his family one-by-one unless he posts a confession on his Facebook page owning up to something he cannot even remember doing, he chooses to ignore it - until the morning he awakes to find his pet dog has been horrifically tortured and then killed. He seeks out an old school friend, Jeffrey Coleman, who agrees to put him in touch with Matt Dixon, now living a quiet life in a cottage in the country. When Matt agrees to help him find the blackmailer before he can carry out his threats, he finds himself involved in one of his most puzzling cases, where even the intended victim claims to have no idea of who the person is or what he could possibly have done to anger them so much. Feeling the answer lies somewhere in the author's past, Matt and his partner, Jane Osgood, begin to delve into his days at school and University. The more they uncover, the more they come to realise that the seemingly idyllic lifestyle of the man, his model wife and two perfect children is only a flimsy façade hiding a past full of strange relationships and cruelly vindictive actions. And yet, even when confronted by these discoveries, Zac insists he has no recollection of hurting anyone in any way - then the killings begin. The closer they get to the truth, the more Matt and Jane come to realise that they themselves could be the intended targets and, as the body count rises, they race against time to save the lives of Zac's children as well as their own. The answer, when they finally discover it, is stranger than any they could ever have imagined, but will it come too late to save them from the deranged and vicious killer?

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