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.

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

Ottawa Sun

. . . 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

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