The Learning Curve of Pain

Lewis Milken is a dying man who has one last wish: to find out what happened to his sister nearly forty years ago. Emma Milken supposedly died of tuberculosis while working as a governess in Spain. But Lewis believes there is more to the story.

Part-time fixer Chance Yang has troubles of his own. His relationship with girlfriend Catherine Roxborough is on the rocks. But when his flamboyant former boss, Felipe Kazama, sends Lewis his way, Chance heads straight from London to Spain to search for the answers Lewis seeks.

Just as everything seems to be cleared up, Felipe sends another suspicious case in Chance's direction. Detective Nigel Weatherby needs a murder investigating, and he has his reasons for keeping it under the radar. Daniele Vidas was stabbed to death by a former colleague, but her death is more baffling than it first appears. Tupperware boxes containing the bodies of dead cats are found in her backyard. Stranger still, the hair samples found inside them belong to the adopted Sudanese girl who lives in the multi-million-pound property next door.

When Chance poses as a Maths tutor to gain access to the girl's household, he opens the door to a world of wealth and privilege and a dark, twisting mystery where learning the truth will be a painful feat...