A public servant disappears after Friday drinks, presumed murdered. His body is never found. Five years later, his colleagues discover his files. Was Eric’s disappearance related to the government inquiry he was working on or something more sinister?
Frances Geller, self-appointed Queen of Invoice Reconciliations thinks Eric discovered that police forensic evidence had been compromised, putting thousands of criminal convictions at risk. She thinks someone in power pulled Eric’s inquiry and had him killed to prevent an unprecedented scandal in the justice system.
Frances does what she does best – pouring through the rows and columns of her spreadsheets to uncover the truth. But her nemesis, the snarling Director of Homelessness Strategies, Dr Duncan Wolf, is determined to bring her undone, and she has to pursue her unauthorised investigation between extreme bouts of vertigo caused by a life-long illness. And after five long years, the candle she holds for Eric burns as brightly as ever.
What Frances discovers makes her question her own curtailed ambition and what Eric would think of her retreat to slapping the wrists of petty officials who steal pencils. She also wonders who to trust now that he is gone, and how far the powerful will go to serve their own interests at the expense of people who have nothing.
In bookstores and online October 2023
Karen Herbert 