Cut Adrift: Only the Fittest Will Survive — Chris Simms

'I'll be downloading more of Chris Simms' books ASAP. I feel like I've found a hidden gem.' (Amazon Reader Review â€" Pecking Order)

Chris Simms has been quietly building one of the best police procedural series in this country. (CATHOLIC HERALD)

Pacy, gripping and original storytelling (YORKSHIRE POST)

This highly polished study of madness and murder shows how well Simms' talent is maturing. (SHOTS MAGAZINE)

A must-read for those who like their crime fiction psychological (DEADLY PLEASURES MAGAZINE)

The story's dramatic events are drawn out, gradually building to a page-turning, heart-stopping â€" and totally unexpected â€" ending. (THE BOOK PLACE)

The novel's high-quality storytelling has an authentic, documentary feel' (CITY LIFE MAGAZINE)

She is alone on the ocean.

Drifting without hope, she writes her harrowing story on scraps of paper, seals them in anything that will float and casts them from her makeshift raft.

In Manchester, DI Spicer is investigating the brutal slayings of several Russian asylum-seekers. MI5 warn him to back off, but he cannot let the case go â€" especially once he suspects a link to the series of heart-wrenching notes being washed-up on the British coast.

As he closes in on the truth, he realises â€" too late â€" he's now the target of a trained killer who will do anything to protect his master's secret.

Chris Simms' acclaimed first novel in the DI Spicer series, KILLING THE BEASTS was selected as a Best Crime book for 2005 by SHOTS magazine. He was then selected as a Waterstone's Author for the Future, one of 25 writers tipped by publishers, editors and agents, to produce the most impressive body of work over the next quarter century. Since then he has been nominated several times for the THEAKSTON'S CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR and for CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION DAGGERS. Chris lives in Manchester.

Find out more on his official web site, www.chrissimms.info or, for regular postings, see his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AuthorChrisSimms