Detective Vincent Swann: Book 1
Publication Date: August 17, 2026
He came home to escape his past. Now it’s back to haunt him.
Crouched over the body of a young woman in the mud, her glassy eyes reflecting the glowing Manchester skyline, DI Vincent Swann feels a familiar chill creep his spine. Home after his last case almost cost him his life, he knows he can’t trouble the waters with his new team. But the pram tracks leading away from the scene mean a killer didn’t just take a life. He took a child…
In his crisp suit, Swann looks like an outsider, but no-one knows the city’s darkest corners like he does. Toying with the burner phone in his pocket, his instincts tell him not to make the call, but every second counts.
Then he sees the pale pink ribbon carefully placed on the ground not far from the body, and the city walls close in on him. It’s the calling card of the killer he sacrificed everything to put behind bars, and whether he caught the wrong man or it’s a copycat, Swann knows that only unthinkable danger lies between him and saving that missing child…
A totally gripping and absolutely unputdownable thriller from bestselling author Helen H. Durrant. Readers of Angela Marsons, Helen Fields and D.S. Butler will be hooked from the very first page!
A brutal murder greets DI Vincent Swann as he joins a new team.
Author Helen H. Durrant uses In the Dark Places to introduce a new series featuring the detective. Not only is he vying for a promotion, but he’s trying to adjust to new teammates.
When the murder site provides evidence of a young child’s presence, Swann and the team realize the ante has been increased to include kidnapping. And when the woman’s identity is revealed, it opens up a channel deep into the city’s seedy underbelly.
It took me a bit to realize that “a child’s dummy” meant a pacifier instead of a pint-sized fake person. Aside from that, the story delivers a solid British setting that is easy to follow.
Swann proves to be full of secrets while trying to stay focused on the investigation. There’s an interesting twist built into the story connecting the past to the present.
In the Dark Places delivers a police procedural full of twists and turns.
Helen is married with two daughters, five grandchildren and one great grandchild. She lives in the North West of England amid the beautiful, rugged scenery of the Pennine foothills. When Helen was close to retirement, she made the decision to give writing a go. At first, she tried romance but couldn’t get off the starting block, so crime it was. For her first novel, she spent weeks deciding on the main character’s name and once she had it, she was off and running, writing the first novel, then a sequel then a third in quick succession. From the off Helen loved writing, making up stories and getting to know the characters who spring from her imagination. She feels like she actually knows these people, what makes then tick and what drives them. Helen is many years retired and although her family tell her to put her feet up, she can’t give up writing. Ever since that first book it’s become an obsession.
