RESULTS

Patrick Freeman, celebrity short-tempered chef; Chris Marquand, successful doctor; Georgina Leyton, hot shot lawyer; Matthew Godwin, owner of the hottest South London bar. Four strangers unwittingly bound together by a dark secret. Working on the case, Saz Martin journeys through the emotions of the past.

Saz Martin is settled into new motherhood with her partner Molly and their nine-month-old daughter Matilda. Things have not been easy since the birth - late nights, early mornings, and a sudden death have all taken their toll - but with Molly's return to full time work and Saz happily taking on the role of Matilda's prime carer, both women feel they are finally adjusting to parenthood and the demands of their new life. And then the phone rings. The door knocks. A well-known stranger arrives. Instead of moving forward into her role as a full time mother, Saz is forced to face her past, confronting people and events she had long ago hoped to forget. In a story of how the sins of our past always come back to haunt us, Stella Duffy reveals secrets no-one knew about Saz Martin, explores why Saz is who she is, and asks is it still possible to believe in our heroes - and our lovers - when their flaws are well and truly exposed?

Under his railway arch in Loughborough Junction, South London, Robert Sutton is taking leave of a lifetime of hard work. His dry-cleaning shop lies at the heart of a lively community, a fixed point in a changing world. And, as he explains to his successor, young East Londoner Akeel, it is also the resting place for the contents of his customers' pockets - and for their secrets and lies. As he helps Akeel to make a new life out of his old one, Robert also hands on all he knows of his world: the dirty dip of the Thames; the parks, rare green oases in a desert of high-rises and decaying mansion blocks; and the varied lives that converge at the junction.

From classic crime to magical anti-realism, hot sex to cold calculation, Tart Noir is a collection of twenty stories by female crime writers. The morals of the protagonists are questionable and their actions are guaranteed to shock.