One Man and His Bomb — H.R.F. Keating

Detective Superintendent Harriet Martens takes great pride in her twin sons, who decided to follow in her footsteps by joining the police force in London. She is devastated one night when she learns that one of her sons has been killed by a terrorist bomb and that the other is in the hospital, gravely injured.

In the wake of the bomb outrage, every available police officer is occupied with antiterrorist precautions. Harriet, on the other hand, finds herself investigating the theft of a herbicide specimen from a Birchester research station. The stolen sample is capable of causing more destruction than any single bomb.

Harriet must work in secrecy, all the while fighting off her overwhelming grief and unceasing fears. All but alone in a deceptive world where people aren't quite what they seem, she has to become, once again, the Hard Detective.