This collection of stories reveals the origins of the beasts of the sea, the jungle, the desert and even of the palaces of the East. It tells how the elephant got his trunk, how the leopard got his spots and how the humble butterfly caused an uproar by stamping his foot.
When a woman's body is found in a North London flat clutching a bloodstained sliver of X-ray, DI Thorne discovers that the victim's mother had herself been murdered fifteen years before by the infamous serial killer Raymond Garvey. When more bodies and more fragments of X-ray are discovered, a horrifying picture emerges: a killer is targeting the children of Garvey's victims...