Jack in the Box — Blake Banner

It was a real Jack in the box.

Only this box was a UPS delivery to crime novelist Helena Magnusson, and the Jack was Jack Connors â€" her husband; or at least his head. The rest of him was probably in the East River somewhere.

When Detectives Stone and Dehan of the 43rd Precinct reopen the case it isn't just cold - with no forensic evidence and no witnesses, it's nigh impossible to solve - and in an investigation that takes them from the Bronx, through Connecticut, right up to Malone on the Canadian border, the cold case team's list of suspects only seems to grow longer: Is it Connors' lover, the mysterious Penelope Peach? Or her jilted lover, ruthless South African arms dealer, Grant Shaw? Or is it Helena's creative writing student, Lenny dos Santos, now doing time for murder?

Or is it none of them?

But in this cold case, these questions are just the tip of the iceberg. Detective Dehan will discover that for her, the box holds a darker, more terrible revelation than she could possibly imagine…