A page-turning mystery in the tradition of Ruth Rendell and P. D. James, Die With Me is the first novel in the bestselling Mark Tartaglia series by Elena Forbes.

Die. Die with me. Be mine forever. That's what he had said.

When fourteen-year-old Gemma Kramer's broken body is found on the floor of St. Sebastian’s Church in a quiet London suburb, the official ruling is that she jumped to her death from the organ gallery. But when a witness claims to have seen Gemma kissing a much older man outside shortly beforehand, and a toxicology report reveals traces of a date-rape drug in the girl's system, a murder investigation is launched.

At the helm is Mark Tartaglia, a stubborn detective known for following his hunches. It’s Tartaglia’s first time in charge, and he walks right into a political minefield as the murder squad turns up three more suspicious deaths — all originally ruled suicides — involving vulnerable young women falling from high places. Can Tartaglia and his team connect the dots between victims in order to find a serial killer with a chilling predilection for lonely girls and deadly heights?

Elena Forbes is the author of the Mark Tartaglia mystery series. The first novel in the series, Die With Me, was a finalist for the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey New Blood Dagger; and the second novel, Our Lady of Pain, was a Globe and Mail Top 10 Crime Book and a National Post pick for Best Crime Fiction. She lives in London, England, with her husband and children.

Elena Forbes' profile page

. . . a fresh and intelligent first crime novel by the English writer Elena Forbes, she presents readers with a possible murder suspect whom all of us would love to convict. . . Forbes is particularly clever at pushing her characters in unexpected directions. . . For that reason and others, it comes as good news that a development at the book's end guarantees a sequel to Die With Me.

Toronto Star

Elena Forbes introduces an interesting new London homicide detective in her debut novel . . . hunky but troubled Mark Tartaglia . . . A stellar debut.

Ottawa Sun

Die With Me, Elena Forbes's debut, delivers. . . Brilliantly crafted.

Globe and Mail

Elena Forbes has written a fine debut novel. . . The troubled [DI Mark] Tartaglia is an interesting creation and the plot shifts and swerves in unexpected but pleasurable ways.

Observer