She was ten years old, but knew enough to wipe clean the handle of the bloody kitchen knife. The night was stifling; the windows were closed, sealing in the chaos. A table upturned, shattered crockery. Her distraught mother, bare shoulders raw with welts, knelt beside her motionless father. The child snatched up her backpack, and ran... London sweats in the height of midsummer, and Catherine Berlin hides her scars from prying eyes. At the methadone clinic, she meets an old friend, Sonja Kvist, who begs her to help find her missing daughter. But the case is not as straightforward as it first appears, and Catherine soon realises that in order to find the girl, she must tackle a far greater threat ... A Bitter Taste is the thrilling second instalment in the magnificent crime series featuring civilian investigator Catherine Berlin, whose long-standing heroin addiction is only part of her story.