An audio book set in Camden.
Cassie is a mortuary technician, orphaned when young by a car accident. She's bisexual. She has come out of a relationship with Rachel. She used to squat. She's in a different world now though she has piercings and doesn't like the police.
She has one night stands, sometimes Coke. While working (graphically) on a body she realises it's Mrs Edwards, a 50 year old lady who had made Cassie go back into education and get some good A levels. She seemed to have drowned in her bath after drinking. The rarely seen/mentioned Owen, son of Mrs E, is an alcoholic who asked his mother for money. He wants the body released asap. She was engaged to an architect, Christian, based in Germany but often in England. Cassie breaks the news to him. They'd broken up a month or 2 before, having met via a dating site.
Cassie whispers to the bodies. They sometimes talk back. She has hallucinations about Mrs E. An old man's body disappears in the night. Her access code was used.
DS Flight's PoV appears. She moved from quiet Winchester to escape memories of a failed marriage with Matt, and a 28-week stillborn.
The stolen body's recovered from a river, name tag intact. Cassie's mugged. She fights back. Nothing taken.
Cassie fancies Flight and gives her info whose source she doesn't always disclose. She wants Mrs E's cremation delayed so that full tests can be done. She suspects that Christian is a fake who exploits older women. It's true, discovers Flight. But then he's found dead. Maybe Owen's to blame? Cassie collapses in the street - an adrenalin overdose injected while she was walking. The video at the end seems rather contrived but I suppose it's no worse than a final, detailed confession. And the stolen body's explained too.
The mortuary details are believable. Twice the reason for putting brains in formalin is explained.
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