Lorraine Quick

Six candidates. One job. A killer prepared to murder their way to the top. Salford, 1983. Lorraine Quick is a single mum, a member of a band going nowhere fast and Personnel Officer at Salford's grim Memorial Hospital. A new General Manager position is being introduced, someone to steer the institution towards Margaret Thatcher's lofty vision for the NHS. Lorraine will be pivotal in selecting the successful candidate, thanks to her recent training in psychometric testing. However, the deliberate substitution of a flu vaccine for a lethal dose of anaesthetic reveals a killer is at work at the hospital. Lorraine's suspicions turn towards the top brass vying for the new role - could the personality tests lead her to the killer? Sharp Scratch takes readers behind the scenes of a sprawling northern hospital, to the places the public does not see and would not want to, where clashes between politics and personalities can be fatal.

Lorraine has a big new challenge: building a team from a collection of staff picked to close down an abandoned asylum and replace it with a new high security unit in isolated Yorkshire. Lorraine has her work cut out for her when it appears that the group includes a secret saboteur. Then, a local teenager is found dead, locked in the isolation room in the derelict asylum building. With a discovery that forces her to face true isolation, trapped in the asylum's tunnels while the demolition team start work above, Lorraine becomes a fresh target for the killer.