Black Earth

'Kate London, the new rising star of crime fiction, is the real thing' Tony Parsons, bestselling author of Man and Boy

A family shattered. A community divided.

Detective Constable Ian Wheedon has been running away from himself since he was a boy.  He worked in Merseyside covering serious crime, but now lives in a remote police house working as a local cop.  His brother, Stephen, is on the front lines of the miners' strike in  Stoke. The force is already stretched to breaking point when Ian is called in to investigate the brutal murder of their childhood friend. The case brings Ian face-to-face with his past, his family, and with the life he left behind. As tensions erupt and tempers fray, the community fractures. But when Stephen's son Christopher goes missing, it becomes a race against time to solve the case. Ian and his family must fight for the answers they need and the future they want, before it's too late.



Born in Germany, Kate London spent the rest of her childhood in Stoke on Trent, the setting for this latest series. Kate has a degree in history from Cambridge University. After working in theatre as an actor, writer and director, she joined the Met Police. She finished her service working as a detective on the Met's homicide command but in 2014 resigned to focus on her writing. She is the author of four books in the Tower series, which have been adapted and broadcast by ITV.