Amanda Valentine

After a year's leave of absence in New York, Detective Inspector Amanda Valentine returns to Wellington, New Zealand just in time for the most sensational homicide of the year.

The body of Sybil Knight, daughter of a former Ambassador to the United States, has been found trussed and battered in a private room in a lesbian sex club. Amanda soon finds herself caught between a voracious media and a powerful family determined to cover up the facts.

Originally from New York City, Amanda moved to the other side of the planet to escape memories of her lover's brutal death in the precinct house where Amanda worked as a homicide detective.

Now the highest ranked female cop in sleepy New Zealand, she is in pursuit of a monster the press has dubbed the Garbage Dump Killer and her task force has been resoundingly unsuccessful. To make matters worse, Jezebel, an informer Amanda cares about, has been savagely beaten for reasons she is too terrified to divulge.

The son of a Baptist preacher, Bryce Petty looked like a choir boy. But when he is found murdered in Wellington, New Zealand, his less-than-angelic past becomes front-page news. President of the Melbourne-based gay and lesbian broadcasting firm, Spectrum Television, Bryce has left behind him a trail of debts and a slew of enemies.