Frankie Ransom

Detective Inspector Frankie Ransom prides herself on being third generation Met - her father was head of the old Flying Squad, her grandfather retired as deputy head of CID at Scotland Yard - but suspects the Force she loves has long since fallen out of love with her.

In The Plains of Waterloo, eight months have passed since the bloodbath at Harald Villas at the end of A Ransom for Two Roses. Frankie has been slowly piecing her life back together and coming to terms with her changed self. When she visits a notorious child killer in prison at Waddon Hall Maximum Security Unit in Dorset, she believes she is testing how far she has come since that terrible winter night.

She'd been promised a "proper" police job in the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, but what she'd got wasn't even close. She'd been promised she'd be working with an elite team of experienced detectives - what she'd got was a squad of malcontents, troublemakers, and time-servers. And worst of all, she discovers she's been appointed London's unofficial "Celebrity Cop." As if to add insult to injury, Professional Standards are on her case. Not because she's done anything wrong.