Kate Power

Personal tragedy cut short Kate Power's accelerated-promotion career in the Met. She's lucky, though – Birmingham CID give her a job, and chance to make a new start in the house her great-aunt has given her. Soon Kate discovers that she's trying to fix up the house from hell, with garden to match. Domestic equals professional pressure: though most of her new colleagues are helpful and supportive, some just think she's fresh female meat to harass.Some seem to think Kate's not pulling her weight in their current case of abduction and abuse of young boys. Then personal life starts overlapping with the investigation. Should Kate follow the conventional line of enquiry, or strike out on her own?

Introducing Birmingham Detective Sergeant Kate Power, exiled from London's Metropolitan Police by personal tragedy and making a new start in the distant outpost of Birmingham CID. Her new Brummie bosses are good men, for the most part, but they can't seem to let their new female colleague alone long enough to get on with her job. Kate is anxious to lose herself in her work, and before too long a case comes along that will consume her in a way she could never have imagined. Young boys are being abducted, abused, and murdered on her patch, and she feels intense personal and professional pressure to catch those responsible. Kate must navigate the unfamiliar channels of power in male-dominated Birmingham; are her colleagues being deliberately obstructive or simply dragging their feet? Soon she is forced to make an important decision: Should she follow the conventional line of enquiry, toe the company line, and work as part of the team, or should she strike out on her own, reputation be damned? Kate's got her work cut out for her, but she's a tough young cop who's seen a lot in her brief career and no one, not a heavy-handed supervisor or a vicious killer, is going to stop her from surviving, and thriving, in Birmingham. Power on Her Own is a taut, gritty cop novel from talented crime writer Judith Cutler.