She thought she'd cut off the snake's head. The hydra had other plans.

When Dee's old boss asks her to check on Janine's husband, Leo, she expects a routine job, proof of infidelity, a few photographs, nothing more. What she uncovers is something far worse. Leo is tangled up with people who don't play nice, and Dee recognises the shape of it. She has met this network before. She thought she'd dismantled it when Alex died.

She was wrong. Cut off one head, and two more grow back. This is no longer a snake. It is a hydra and Dee has just rattled the cage.

Falling foul of a ruthless predator, Dee believes her luck has finally run out. But she has underestimated her own courage and the lengths her friends will go to in order to drag her out of a corner she should never have walked into. It turns out the difference between living and dying isn't about knowing the right people. Sometimes it's about knowing exactly the wrong ones.

For fans of psychological thriller books that refuse to flinch:
• A mystery thriller novel where one coincidence is coincidence, two is conspiracy
• Relentless suspense thriller energy — gripping and impossible to set down
• Crime thriller books built around moral complexity and a heroine with real weight
• A crime novel about networks, predators, and the people who refuse to look away
• Book 4 of 4 in the Suffer the Little Children crime series — the final reckoning

Chris Lewando writes psychological thriller fiction with dark humour, emotional precision, and a heroine readers won't forget.

The hydra is awake. Dee is in the cage. Read The Recovery of Children now.