Kiss of Death by Paul Finch: Guest Post

Kiss of Death by Paul Finch

Series: Detective Mark Heckenburg #7

Release Date: 9th August 2018
Publisher: Avon

Genres: Crime / Thriller

Could this be the end for Heck?

The Sunday Times bestseller returns with an unforgettable crime thriller. Fans of MJ Arlidge and Stuart MacBride won’t be able to put this down.
Don’t let them catch you…

A Deadly Hunt
DS ‘Heck’ Heckenburg has been tasked with retrieving one of the UK’s most wanted men. But the trail runs cold when Heck discovers a video tape showing the fugitive in a fight for his life. A fight he has no chance of winning.

A Dangerous Game
Heck realises that there’s another player in this game of cat and mouse, and this time, they’ve not just caught the prize: they’ve made sure no one else ever does.

A Man Who Plays With Fire
How far will Heck and his team go to protect some of the UK’s most brutal killers? And what price is he willing to pay?

GUEST POST

OPERATION SLEDGEHAMMER

One of the things in KISS OF DEATH that has most attracted interest is Operation Sledgehammer, in which the Serial Crimes Unit joins forces with the Metropolitan Police’s Cold Case team in order to track down the 20 most dangerous British criminals still on the loose and believed to be residing in the UK.

It’s a work of fiction, of course, so this involved me having to come up with my own list of infamous characters. But someone asked me recently, ‘who would be on a list like that in real life?’

This was a chilling but fascinating question, though one which, ultimately, would be impossible to answer because UK law enforcement doesn’t keep an official catalogue of the ‘Most Wanted’.

However, it struck me that it wouldn’t be difficult to put together a similar list, perhaps a list of the 10 most dangerous British criminals of the 21^st century to date. Not those who are still at large, but if they had been, those whose crimes would definitely have necessitated the involvement of Operation Sledgehammer and pursuit by a cop like Heck.

And so, in no particular order, here they are …

Steve Wright: The murderer of five prostitutes in Ipswich during the final months of 2006. More of a spree killer than a traditional serial killer, Wright was nevertheless referred to as the Suffolk Strangler, and created a short-lived county-wide panic. Now serving a full-life prison sentence, he is still being investigated in connection with several other unsolved sex murders.

Gary Vinter: A 6ft7in giant classified as ‘one of the most dangerous individuals in the UK prison system’. Two times killer Vinter, a Middlesbrough native, first murdered a work-mate back in 1995 by stabbing him 13 times. A decade later, he also stabbed his estranged wife to death. Sentenced to a full-life term, he’s been a model of violence ever since, half-blinding one fellow lifer and attempting to murder another.

David Bieber: A US-born bodybuilder, wanted for a fatal shooting spree in Florida, who recommenced his life of crime after smuggling himself into the UK in 1996. In 2003, his stolen car was stopped by three unarmed police officers, whom he opened fire on with a pistol. Two were badly wounded, one of whom Bieber then executed as he lay on the floor, for which callous murder he is now serving a 37-year jail term.

Levi Bellfield: One of the most brutal serial killers of modern times, Bellfield was already a prolific offender when, in 2008, he was charged with murdering two women in southwest London, having struck both with a hammer, and attempting to murder a third by hitting her with his car. In 2011, he was also convicted of the rape and murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler but was already serving a full-life sentence.

Glyn Dix: A Redditch man, who in 2005 resolved an argument with his wife about what to watch on television by cutting her to pieces with a knife, a hacksaw and a pair of scissors. The victim’s family had known that Dix was an ex-jailbird but were infuriated to learn that he’d been convicted of shooting a woman dead in 1979, claiming no one had warned them. Dix was detained for life in a secure hospital.

Mark Martin: A Nottingham serial killer who, just for the fun of it, strangled three homeless women in 2004 and 2005. Martin had set out with the express intention of becoming a serial killer, Nottingham’s first in fact, and in the process called on two equally vicious accomplices, John Ashley and Dean Carr. The two henchmen received lengthy sentences, but Martin, the ringleader, was issued with a whole life tariff.

Mark Hobson: A rampage killer, who already had a history of serious violence, when, in 2004 he beat his girlfriend to death in their North Yorkshire house. He then invited her twin sister around, and tortured and murdered her as well, mutilating the two corpses. He later entered the home of an elderly couple and slaughtered them both. A massive police-hunt finally netted him, and he too was given life without parole.

Kenneth Regan / William Horncy: Two for one here in a pair of gangsters who, back in 2003, didn’t just murder a Wiltshire businessman to take over his freight company in order to supply drugs, but also butchered his entire family, five victims in total, including two young children. Regan was the boss and Horncy the sidekick, but both were deemed equally culpable, and both sentenced to serve full life terms.

Anthony Hardy: Infamous as the ‘Camden Ripper’, the full tally of Hardy’s victims has never been established, but it is thought to be several more than the three he was finally convicted of. His downfall came in 2002, when the dismembered corpses of two prostitutes were found in the bins serving his Camden flat. After a trial that read more like a horror novel, he too joined the ranks of the never-to-be-released.

Joanna Dennehy: The only woman on the list, but she’s right at home here. A classic serial killer, Dennehy killed three men in Peterborough, in 2013, by stabbing them, purely for pleasure, having first selected them for their convenience. Her ambition was to slay nine to rival Bonnie & Clyde, but despite attacking five before her arrest, two survived. She is one of only two British women still serving full life sentences.