The Shadow Hound

For months, a fragile peace has settled over Liverpool, and DI Frank Byrne has been grateful for it. After a secret, impossible war fought in the city's shadows, a return to the mundane rhythm of everyday crime was a welcome reprieve. He tried to bury the memories of the supernatural, to lock away the knowledge that the world is thinner and more terrifying than anyone knows.

But the silence on Brunswick Dock is the first sign that the peace is over.

When a wealthy property developer is found dead in the cold, grey waters of the Mersey, the scene is wrong in ways that defy all logic. The body resists the tide, the cause of death is a physical impossibility, and the only clues are a strange, coarse feather and a cryptic symbol carved into the dock wall-a brand of ancient, aggressive geometry.

For Byrne, it's a chilling echo of a past he cannot escape. This is not the work of an ordinary killer. It's a different song, but played in the same, terrible, discordant key.

As a second, even more brutal murder confirms his fears, Byrne realises a new predator is stalking his city. This one isn't a collector; it's a vandal-a creature of raw, chaotic, and overwhelming violence. While his superiors hunt for a human suspect, Byrne and his trusted partner, DC Aisha Khan, are the only ones who understand the true nature of the threat. They are guardians on a wall no one else can see, fighting a war that officially doesn't exist.

Now, Byrne must race to unravel the mystery of this new monster-a shapeshifting terror that leaves impossible clues in its wake-before its escalating violence consumes the city. But to hunt a shadow, he must step back into the darkness, risking not only his life but the very secret that has already cost him so much.