PublicationStatus

Brand

Format

AgeRange

Series

Imprint

CategoryLabel

Annie Hauxwell

A crime-fiction series with a twist - private investigator Catherine Berlin, is a damaged soul struggling with a heroin addiction, but she still manages to do her best, even when her own neck is on the chopping block.

She was ten years old, but knew enough to wipe clean the handle of the bloody kitchen knife. The night was stifling; the windows were closed, sealing in the chaos. A table upturned, shattered crockery. Her distraught mother, bare shoulders raw with welts, knelt beside her motionless father. The child snatched up her backpack, and ran… 
 
London sweats in the height of midsummer, and Catherine Berlin hides her scars from prying eyes. At the methadone clinic, she meets an old friend, Sonja Kvist, who begs her to help find her missing daughter. But the case is not as straightforward as it first appears, and Catherine soon realises that in order to find the girl, she must tackle a far greater threat … 
 
A Bitter Taste is the thrilling second instalment in the magnificent crime series featuring civilian investigator Catherine Berlin, whose long-standing heroin addiction is only part of her story.

A Bitter Taste

The first in a series of crime novels starring the magnificent Catherine Berlin, a civilian investigator whose long-standing heroin addiction is only part of her story. 
 
On a bone-chilling February morning, Catherine Berlin, investigator with the Financial Services Agency, finds the almost-headless body of her informant, 'Juliet Bravo', rolling in a shallow reach of the Thames. That Juliet Bravo's death is linked to an investigation of local loan shark Archie Doyle is no surprise to Berlin, but when Berlin's own unorthodox methods are blamed for the murder, she realises bigger predators are circling. 
 
To start with, it looks as though Berlin will pay only with her job. And then, on a routine trip to her GP (one of a dying breed who will still prescribe heroin to long-term addicts), she stumbles across a second body. 
 
Suspended, incriminated, and then blackmailed into cooperation by the detective leading the murder investigation, Catherine Berlin has seven stolen days of clarity in which to solve the crime - and find a new supplier.

In Her Blood

The hands were warm. Soft fingers, but flesh inflected with iron. Squeezing. The tongue lolled and protruded from the mouth. Vertebrae fragmented, one, two, three, until finally the hands relaxed and the limp body slid from their embrace. 
 
Blood turned to ice and sealed the nostrils. 
 
It’s the week before Christmas. Catherine Berlin sits alone gazing at a bank of monitors, each capturing a slice of a vast industrial estate. A van appears: two men delivering crates, moving quickly. Her boss tells her to ignore them, but she can’t. 
 
Berlin’s scars have faded, but she still walks with a limp. She's broke and working nights as a relief CCTV operator, and looking for something more substantial. Her heroin habit is under control – only just. 
 
The night shifts end, but now Berlin herself is being watched. When an old friend offers her a job in Russia, she quickly agrees. The details are vague: a mysterious businessman with money to spend, a UK company offering a high fee for Berlin to investigate. Easy enough. 
 
But Berlin arrives in Moscow to find that her problems are only just beginning. She is soon forced to confront some uncomfortable truths about her past, and her present. A body is found at the airport: a man clutching a sign with her name on it. Her pursuers reappear, and her guide, a Brit named Charlie, has secrets to hide. When Berlin’s businessman goes missing, she realises that she cannot trust anyone or anything, if she is to survive.

A Morbid Habit

1961. In the drawing room of an imposing Hong Kong residence, a British lord brutally assaults a young Chinese boy. His grandson watches, helpless. But he will never forget. 
 
Wapping, London, present day. It’s a warm spring in the capital, and heroin addict Catherine Berlin feels the clammy breath of the past on her neck. Battling to stay clean, and bearing the scars of her most recent case, she is struggling to outpace her demons. 
 
An old contact has offered her a job investigating a violent attack by a seventeen-year-old public schoolboy, a Chinese orphan on a prestigious scholarship. The victim has gone missing, and the boy’s patron, a shadowy peer, claims the case is being manipulated by the Chinese government. Seduced by the boy’s vulnerability and the peer’s allegations, Berlin journeys to Hong Kong, where she uncovers a conspiracy that reaches from the Pearl River Delta to the Palace of Westminster… 
 
House of Bones is the fourth novel in the inimitable Catherine Berlin series, and a breathtaking and blood-spattered thriller.

House of Bones

biblio.categories.code

biblio.publicationStatus

biblio.brand

biblio.workEditions.format

biblio.ageRange

biblio.series.seriesName

biblio.imprint.description

biblio.type

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

Search Results

Little Black Classics Box Set

Penguin Modern Box Set

Doctor Who: Circuit-Breaker

Frankenstein

An illustration from the book There's An Elf in Your Book and The Christmasaurus

Children's quizzes

Are you on Santa's naughty or nice list?

There's An Alien in You Book by Tom Fletcher

Extracts

There’s an Alien in Your Book by Tom Fletcher

The Creakers by Tom Fletcher

Reading lists

The best books to gift your grandchildren

An image of several space books for kids on a dark purple background with rocket, planet and star doodles around them

Children's reading lists

11 out-of-this-world space books for kids

75 Christmas books for kids

An image of a selection of spooky children's books on a dark purple background with an orange shape which features a zig-zag pattern

32 spooky books to read this Halloween

A photo of the book The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher on a wooden background next to  some presents and a candy cane

The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher

A picture of a several different books by Tom Fletcher on a light blue and red background

Where to start with Tom Fletcher’s books

An image of a selection of funny books for under 5s on a purple background with white dotted lines

14 books that will make under 5s giggle

Space Band by Tom Fletcher

The best dystopian books of all time

A photo of a copy of The Christmasaurus and the Winter Witch by Tom Fletcher on a light blue background alongside white paper snowflakes

The Christmasaurus and the Winter Witch by Tom Fletcher

85 books to read before you're 12

Christmas gifts for 2025: Books for under 5s

An image of a selection of books for under 5s on an orange background with a large splodge and cloud print

24 must-read books for under 5s

An image of a selection of books for 9-12s on a blue background with a large splodge and striped print

24 must-read books for 9-12-year-olds

A photo of a selection of children's crime books on a red background with a magnifying glass hovering over the book The London Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

16 must-read crime and mystery books

Best romance books for ultimate escapism

stemming

Showing results for: ‘tom fletcher there's a in your book’

Filters

Category

Publication Date

Format

Series

Imprint

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter