JIM KELLY

1939, Cambridge: The opening weeks of the Second World War, and the first blackout - The Great Darkness - covers southern England, enveloping the city. Detective Inspector Eden Brooke, a wounded hero of the Great War, takes his nightly dip in the cool waters of the Cam. Daylight reveals a corpse on the riverside, the body torn apart by some unspeakable force. Brooke investigates, calling on the expertise and inspiration of a faithful group of fellow `nighthawks' across the city, all condemned, like the detective, to a life lived away from the light. Within hours The Great Darkness has claimed a second victim. War, it seems, has many victims, but what links these crimes of the night?

On the site of a former POW camp, deep in the Cambridgeshire Fens,a body is unearthed by archaeologists and local journalist Philip Dryden knows he has a mystery to solve. First, the man appears to have been shot in the head - and second, he was breaking into the camp not out. As Dryden digs deeper he unearths a corpse of more recent origin...

Summer, 1976. A plane crashes on a farm in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Out of the flames walks young Maggie Beck, clutching a baby in her arms... Twenty-seven years later, investigative journalist Philip Dryden is witness to Maggies deathbed confession, and what starts out as a small story turns into a murder investigation.

When two bodies are discovered, and forensic evidence links both victims to one awful event in 1966, local reporter Philip Dryden knows hes on to a great story. But as his investigations uncover some disturbing truths, they also point towards one terrifying foggy night in the Cambridgeshire Fens two years ago.

A man lies hidden in an abandoned boat. Stifling screams, he draws a knife across his arm, letting the blood flow free. Soon he'll be dead - and life can begin again.Three decades later Declan McIlroy, a 39-year-old loner, is found frozen to death in his flat as Arctic temperatures grip the cathedral city of Ely. His is not the only cold death that winter, but nevertheless reporter Philip Dryden has worrying doubts - for it seems Declan may not have been alone as he slowly froze to death...Dryden's suspicions harden when days later he finds the body of Declan's best friend Joe - frozen within a shell of ice on the doorstep of his secluded Fenland farmhouse.Soon Dryden is picking his way along a disturbing trail of cruelty and betrayal to a brilliantly executed crime. And to a chilling, half-remembered mystery from his own childhood...

In the past: a man crawls desperately through a claustrophobic escape tunnel beneath a POW camp in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Above, a shadow passes across the moon, while ahead only death awaits him. In the present: Philip Dryden is reporting on an archaeological dig at the old POW camp, when a body is uncovered. But there is something odd: the man appears to have been shot in the head, and the position indicates that he was trying to get into the camp, not escape it. It's a puzzle which excites Dryden far more than the archaeologists or the police. That is, until a second, more recent, body is discovered...

Twenty-seven years later, investigative journalist Philip Dryden - visiting his wife, Laura, in hospital - is witness to Maggie's deathbed confession. But some secrets are best kept secret, and what started out for Dryden as a small and curious story about the only survivor of an almost-forgotten plane crash soon escalates into a full-blown murder investigation.

Autumn, 1941. The third year of war and still the siren sounds, driving the people of Cambridge from their beds to trudge to one of the citys crowded bomb shelters. At dawn, the body of a young man is found in a shadowy corner. Everything points to suicide, but Detective Inspector Eden Brooke has his doubts given the unidentified man has a suspiciously tropical suntan and the detectives office telephone number scrawled on the back of his hand. Did the victim know his life was in danger?Brookes caseload doubles when a local factory making submarine periscopes discovers it has a saboteur on the workforce. The citys police are at full-stretch. Then two more men are found dead in the citys shelters. A blackout killer is on the loose. The trail leads Brooke to the university, a laboratory which hides a brutal secret, and the key to a startling mystery.

Cambridge, 1940. It is the first winter of the war, and snow is falling. When an evacuee drowns in the river, his body swept away, Detective Inspector Eden Brooke sets out to investigate what seems to be a deliberate attack. The following night, a local electronics factory is attacked, and an Irish republican slogan is left at the scene. The IRA are campaigning to win freedom for Ulster, but why has Cambridge been chosen as a target? And when Brooke learns that the drowned boy was part of the close-knit local Irish Catholic community, he begins to question whether there may be a connection between the boys death and the attack at the factory. As more riddles come to light, can Brooke solve the mystery before a second attack claims a famous victim?

A lone German bomber crosses the east coast of Britain on a moonless night in the long, hot summer of 1940. The pilot picks up the silver thread of a river and, following it to his target, drops his bomb over Cambridges rail yards. The shell falls short of its mark and lands in a neighbourhood of terraced streets on the edge of the citys medieval centre.DI Eden Brooke is first on the scene and discovers the body of an elderly woman, Nora Wylde, in a house on Elm Street, two fingers on her left hand severed, in what looks like a brutal attempt by looters to steal her rings.When the next day Noras teenage granddaughter Peggy, a munitions worker, is reported missing, Brooke realises there is more to the situation than meets the eye.

1939, Cambridge. The opening weeks of the Second World War, and the first blackout - The Great Darkness - covers southern England, enveloping the city. Detective Inspector Eden Brooke, a wounded hero of the Great War, takes his nightly dip in the cool waters of the Cam. The night is full of alarms, but in this Phoney War, the enemy never comes. But daylight reveals a corpse on the riverside, the body torn apart by some unspeakable force. Brooke investigates, calling on the expertise and inspiration of a faithful group of fellow nighthawks across the city, all condemned, like him, to a life lived away from the light. Within hours The Great Darkness has claimed a second victim. War, it seems, has many victims. But what links these crimes of the night?

October, 1942. Thousands of American GIs are stationed across eastern England building airfields to bomb Nazi Germany and Cambridges dance halls and pubs are a hot spot for Yanks on leave. Detective Inspector Eden Brooke is called to the aerodrome east of the city when the remains of an airman, identified by his dog tag, are uncovered by workers extending the runway. However, this is no recent burial.A fresh murder means that a black US serviceman faces the hangmans noose, but Brooke sees through the clouds of tension and prejudice and believes he sees an innocent man.