Those We Left Behind

Ciaran Devine, who made Belfast headlines eight years ago as the "schoolboy killer," is about to walk free. At the age of twelve, he confessed to the brutal murder of his foster father; his testimony mitigated the sentence of his older brother Thomas, who was also found at the crime scene, covered in blood. But DCI Serena Flanagan, the only officer who could convince a young, frightened Ciaran to speak, has silently harbored doubts about his confession all this time.

Ciaran's release means several things: a long-anticipated reunion with Thomas, who still wields a dangerous influence over him; the call-to-action of a man bent on revenge for his father's death; and major trouble for Ciaran's assigned probation officer, Paula Cunningham. Meanwhile, Serena Flanagan has just returned to the force from her battle with breast cancer, only to endure the pitying looks of her coworkers and a mountain of open case files left behind by a retiring officer. But she will soon discover that even closed cases can unleash terror on the streets of Belfast.