A Liverpool Lullaby

IntroductionWelcome to the eighth book in my series of Mersey Mysteries, featuring Detective Inspector Andy Ross and his squad of detectives that make up the fictional Merseyside Police Special Murder Investigation Team, a specialist squad of hand-picked detectives set up to investigate strange or unusual murder cases, and considered to be outside the purview of the regular Criminal Investigation Department. Readers of previous books in the series will be familiar with the central characters, but for newcomers to the series, a little background information to help you settle in with the team. The Merseyside Police's Specialist Murder Investigation Team is a fictional creation and features a small team of highly skilled detectives, brought together to investigate the more bizarre and often extra-violent crimes that the force is frequently faced with. Headed by Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Agostini, the squad is run on a day-to-day basis by Detective Inspector Andy Ross and his assistant Detective Sergeant Izzie Drake. At the time of writing this book Drake is absent on maternity leave, having given birth to her first child. The team is a small, select group of some of the finest detectives on the Merseyside Force, hand-picked for their outstanding skills and abilities. Dissent and discord within Ross's team is non-existent as anyone who doesn't fit in to the team and its ideals is rapidly show the door. As well as Ross and Drake, the team includes Detective Sergeant (DS) Paul Ferris, their resident computer expert who works closely with their civilian Administrative Assistant Kat Bellamy, DS Fenella Church, Acting DS Derek McLennan, and Detective Constables (DCs) Tony Curtis, (real name Leonard but given his nickname due to his striking similarity to the movie star Tony Curtis), Nick Dodds, Samantha Gable, Gary (Ginger) Devenish, and as you'll soon meet, the newest member of the team, DC Ishaan Singh. For readers from the USA and other countries who may be unfamiliar with it, the Liverpudlian accent and dialogue is unique to the Merseyside are of England so readers might find some of the words and grammar used by some of the characters a little different from standard everyday English. This is not a mistake, merely used to create realism. Finally, I welcome you to the city of Liverpool and to the cases of the Merseyside Police, Specialist Murder Investigation Team.