Messiah

DCI Red Metcalfe investigates a brutal series of murders. Each death, vile in execution, is different from the last, but the murderer leaves an unmistakable calling card, cutting out the victims tongue and replacing it with a silver spoon.

Personal grief has to be put aside when brilliant detective Red Metcalfe is faced with a series of grisly and sadistic killings. Each body provides a taunting clue to the murder method to come and the police team and their families could be next on the hit list.

DCI Red Metcalfes renowned ability to get under the skin and into the minds of deranged killers is put to the ultimate test when he is forced to confront an old adversary - Pace Tierney, an enemy Red thought he had put inside forever. An inquiry into prison brutality, conducted by DS Kate Beauchamp, suddenly explodes into a terrifying ordeal when inmates, led by Pace Tierney, riot and take hostages.

When the team arrive at a van abandoned on landfill sight they soon realise this is a case, the like they have never seen before. The van door is locked, the glass darkened, an angry buzzing inside. Phoebe is in the front seat, wasps crawling in and out of her open mouth: SAVE ME is written in blood on the windscreen. Reds analytical skills are stretched to the limit as he tries to fathom the workings of the mind of a killer determined to create their own Hell here on earth.

Assisted by an authority on Dante, DCI Red Metcalfe knows the "sin" and "punishment" of the next victim, but struggles to establish how the victims are being chosen. Will he be able to locate the killer before the macabre sequence is completed?

Joseph starts work uncovering the links between the recent murders, in the concluding part of this urban thriller starring Marc Warren.