'Crime sometimes creeps up on you like a search dog. Sometimes it arrives like a flash of lightning.' These are the opening words of Paul Barker's second enthralling crime novel, The Dead Don't Die, starring his close-lipped private investigator, Taylor. Right on cue, a row breaks out in an obscure London restaurant. Suddenly the man at the heart of the vociferous argument is bundled out into a car-and vanishes. He's been kidnapped. By sheer coincidence-or is it?-Taylor is eating, at the same moment, in the same unglamorous joint. The police see him as a prime witness. But they are baffled. The wealthy, mysterious Mrs Diana Chan commissions Taylor to break the case. Her beautiful blonde daughter, Helen, is married to the missing man. No ransom note is received. Why not? Taylor is drawn into the lethal network of a quarrelsome family. And into bitter international rivalries, reaching out to China, South Africa and Canada. One family member tells Taylor : 'Death seems to follow us around.' In this gripping story, violent death strikes pitilessly-both in affluent suburbia and in modest terraces. Overseas as well as in the UK. Taylor featured in Barker's first e-book thriller, A Crooked Smile (2013). Both books break new ground. They overturn the hackneyed format of the police procedural. This memorable new Taylor story is told with the author's characteristic vivid, stylish observation of people and places. In his quest, Taylor faces the most relentless of killers. He encounters both beauty and the beast. But can he ever put an end to the deaths-without losing his own life?