They call him Herod - a killer of unimaginable cruelty, with an unthinkable desire. This is a dark, disturbing and compulsively page-turning thriller, announcing Mark Roberts as a major new star, set to rival Mark Billingham. Six women. Six abductions. Six souls in peril...London is in the grip of a barbaric serial killer, dubbed Herod by the tabloid press. Four pregnant women have been abducted in quick succession, their bodies mutilated and dumped. When a fifth pregnant woman, Julia Caton, is taken from her home in the dead of night, DCI David Rosen knows that time is running out to save her...Then Rosen gets a mysterious phone call from Father Sebastian Flint, an enigmatic priest who seems to know rather too much about the abductions. When it emerges that Father Flint was once the Vatican's leading expert on the occult, the investigation takes an increasingly disturbing turn. But it isn't until Rosen discovers the existence of an ancient text - said to be the devil's answer to the bible - that the true horror of Herod's plan begins to unfold. Rosen is drawn inexorably to the killer's lair, where he will discover a terrible truth - that Herod's retribution is absolute, and that there are far worse things than death...It is suitable for fans of high-concept British crime/thrillers, readers of Mark Billingham and Simon Kernick.