Evil lurks in the city streets.

A man is discovered on a leafy North London street, fighting for life after a brutal beating. DI Matthew Denning and his team are quickly called in to track down the monster responsible.

Except the victim is hiding secrets of his own. His name shows that he was reported missing two decades ago - but it's clear that the missing person is not the same man lying broken in a hospital bed.

A visit to a squalid East London flat unearths a victim with his throat slit, his body left to decompose. A sad end to any life - but when it is identified as former DCI Frank Buckfield, star of the Met police, the case takes on a new significance.

Two seemingly unrelated cases - but as Denning and DS Molly Fisher, investigate further, they uncover links between the two victims that lead back to a ring of silence cloaking the blackest of crimes.

But as Denning and Fisher try to track down a killer with revenge on their mind, they find themselves pitted against a psychopath who will kill to keep their secrets hidden. Can they uncover the truth, before they end up the latest victims?

The latest in the gripping London crime series featuring DI Matthew Denning and DS Molly Fisher, The Darkness Within is a must-read if you like Angela Marsons, L.J. Ross or Joy Ellis.

Graeme Hampton grew up in Central Scotland. After training as a stage manager in the theatre, he worked in London for a number of years, before returning to Scotland to study for a BA in English Literature at Stirling University. The Darkness Within is his third novel.

He lives in Hastings, East Sussex.