For the Southeast London police squad, it''s rough, tough, dirty business as usual. The Vixen, the most sensuous, crazed female serial killer ever, is masterminding a series of lethal explosions. She is unpredictable, wild, angry--and the cops don''t even know she exists.

Meanwhile, Inspector Roberts is helpless to stop the explosions and his subordinates aren''t doing much better. Brant is consumed with an even-bigger-than-usual mean streak, and fast-rising Porter Nash finds himself facing serious health problems--everything to do with needles. PC MacDonald is determined to soldier on, whatever the cost, and the career of a new addition to the squad, WPC Andrews, starts spectacularly but with Falls as her mentor she''s not expected to last long. At the top, Superintendent Brown is close to a coronary, and arresting the wrong man in a blaze of publicity is only the beginning of his problems.

If the squad survives this incendiary installment in Ken Bruen''s blazingly intense series, they''ll do so with barely a cop left standing.