Death of an Officer

London. Spring 1943. While Europe continues to suffer under the iron fist of Nazi occupation, Britain remains battered but unbowed.

DCI Frank Merlin, already contending with a booming wartime crime wave in the capital, is confronted with a baffling case: the brutal murder of a respected doctor.

Following a puzzling trail that leads him into the hidden corners of clubland - and which appears to be linked to the disappearance of both British and American officers - Merlin must untangle a dark web of shocking secrets.

’This is to my shame the first Mark Ellis book I’ve read. If the others evoke a vanished London so impressively, are graced with such complex plots and deep characterisation, and, above all, are written so well I shall have to read them all.’THE TIMES

’An atmospheric, compelling evocation of war-torn London in the wake of the Blitz, where DCI Frank Merlin fights against a tidal wave of crime’ GEOFFREY WANSELL, Crime and Thriller Reviewer, DAILY MAIL

’Unputdownable’ ROBERT LYMAN

’Mark Ellis delivers diamonds - an intriguing, masterly juggling of an intricate plot and an enviable command of detail.’ JOHN LAWTON

’Extraordinarily atmospheric and compelling, DEAD IN THE WATER is a wonderfully intelligent and complex story’ CHRIS LLOYD, HWA Gold Crown Award winner.

’...historical noir at its best. Mark Ellis’s talents as a writer are many; finely embroidered plotting, a meticulously researched historical context and place, and rounded characters whose lives and capers become real for a reader’ GARY DONNELLY

’A very satisfying puzzle, expertly crafted’ HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

Praise for the DCI Frank Merlin series:

’Masterly . . . compelling . . . one of the most attractive characters to emerge in recent detective-thriller fiction’ ANDREW ROBERTS, SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

’Against the backdrop of Blitz-hit London, this stylish thriller sees Scotland Yard’s Frank Merlin investigate a tangled conspiracy’SUNDAY MIRROR

Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur. Mark grew up under the shadow of his parents’ experience of the Second World War. His father served in the wartime navy and died a young man. His mother told him stories of watching the heavy bombardment of Swansea from the safe vantage point of a hill in Llanelli, and of attending tea dances in wartime London under the bombs and doodlebugs.

In consequence, Mark has always been fascinated by World War II and, in particular, the Home Front and the fact that while the nation was engaged in a heroic endeavour, crime flourished. Murder, robbery, theft and rape were rife.

Author of the DCI Frank Merlin series, Mark is also a member of the Crime Writer’s Association.

He lives in London.