Dead Heat: Detective Erin Loxleyne

By Quinn Ashmore and Lyle Lillian

DEAD HEAT: DETECTIVE ERIN LOXLEYNE

A brutal heatwave has Kent on edge. Tempers are fraying, the streets are restless, and the police are stretched to breaking point. It is the worst possible time for Detective Sergeant Erin Loxleyne to stumble onto something that powerful people need to stay buried.

The first death looks like misfortune. A retired officer, found at his desk, no sign of foul play, nothing to suggest anything other than the heat and an unlucky heart. The second looks like coincidence. A lawyer, found at home, undisturbed, unremarkable. But Loxleyne has spent her career learning to read what is missing from a scene, and both scenes are missing too much.

As she traces the connection between the victims she finds herself pulled back to a case from her past, an investigation that was shut down without explanation, sealed without closure, and protected by people with the authority to make questions disappear. It nearly ended her career once. Now it may do far worse.

With institutional pressure mounting, warnings arriving from unexpected places, and a killer moving with the confidence of someone who understands exactly how the system works, Loxleyne finds herself fighting on two fronts, the investigation in front of her and the one buried beneath it.

Dead Heat is a taut atmospheric thriller set across Kent, and the first book in a compelling new series announcing DS Erin Loxleyne as a detective built for the long game. Sharp, stubborn and impossible to stop.

Detective Erin Loxleyne: Dead Heat is a blistering crime thriller set during a city-breaking heatwave. When officials begin dying in seemingly ordinary ways, Loxleyne uncovers links to a buried cold case that once nearly ended her career. As unrest spreads and the killer closes in, she realises this isn't revenge, it's reckoning, and she may be the final target.

For lovers of: Heat by Ian Rankin, True Detective, The Wire, and gritty, politically charged crime fiction.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H1Q6SGSF
• ISBN13: 9798196635595
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"