Dark Objects

Forensics expert Laughton Rees hunts an unusually clever killer who appears to be staging murder scenes just for her in this twisty new psychological thriller by the bestselling author of the Sanctus trilogy.How do you catch a killer if the victim doesn’t exist?A glamorous woman is murdered in her ultra-luxurious London mansion and her husband goes missing. But according to public records, neither of them exists.The only leads police have are several objects arranged around the woman’s body, including a set of keys and a book called How to Process a Murder by Laughton Rees—a book that appears to have helped the killer arrange the crime scene.Laughton Rees is an academic who doesn’t usually work live cases because, as a teen, she witnessed the brutal murder of her mother and is still dealing with that trauma years later. But when her book is found, she is drawn unwillingly into this new high-profile investigation and the media circus that springs up around it. As the dark objects found

如果受害者根本不存在，要如何抓到兇手？驚悚小說天后泰絲・格里森盛讚推薦有時候，我讀到某位作家的作品時，它好得讓我產生想要放下筆退休的念頭，因為我自覺無法與之匹敵。我說的就是這本書！這本書中迷人的角色深深吸引著我，讓我屏息凝神、完全沉浸其中！──泰絲・格里森󠄀當一位魅力非凡的女子在倫敦一座奢華豪宅中離奇慘死、她的丈夫同時人間蒸發，一樁撼動上流社會的命案就此展開。但警方調查後卻驚愕發現，這對夫妻彷彿從未存在：名字不見於選民登記名冊，網路上沒有任何紀錄，沒有國保號碼，沒有就業歷史。他們，是徹底的幽靈。唯一的線索，是死者屍體周圍刻意擺放的物品——其中包括一串神秘的鑰匙，以及一本由犯罪學教授勞頓．李斯撰寫的《如何處理謀殺案》。這本書的出現，不只將她牽扯進這起備受媒體關注的兇案，也撕開了她極力遺忘的過去。勞頓年幼時，母親被殘忍殺害，她自此留下難以癒合的心理創傷，從不碰觸調查中的命案，也不去犯罪現場。然而，為了釐清真相、保護她年幼的女兒，她不得不再次面對那場毀掉她家庭的悲劇。而這一次，她的過去與現在開始交錯重疊。隨著線索層層揭開，勞頓發現這起命案與她埋藏心底最深的痛有著驚人關聯——與她二十年來拒絕來往的父親約翰．李斯有關，他是現任總督察，也是她一生最想逃避的人。家庭曾經支離破碎，如今她好不容易建立起來的平靜生活再次面臨崩解。為了女兒的未來，也為了自己內心的救贖，勞頓必須面對最黑暗的恐懼，在一切為時已晚之前，揭開真相，找出殺人凶手。