The Patient Man : Joffe Books : 9781789312799 : 1789312795 : 08 Jun 2020 : Serial killer Alistair Ashcroft is back and more terrifying than ever. He sends a sinister warning to DS Marie Evans and breaks into DI Rowan Jackman s uneasy domestic bliss. Now everyone Jackman cares about is in danger. Yet for all Ashcroft s taunts, he is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, a seemingly routine break-in at the home of gun-club owner Kenneth Harcourt becomes complicated when the man long held responsible for killing Harcourt s young daughter is shot dead in a car park by a sniper. A killer is on the loose in the quiet streets of Saltern-le-Fen, and he isn t going to stop. And the sniper, like Ashcroft, takes to taunting the police: they ll never catch him, they need to respect him, they shouldn t be sidetracked looking for their old adversary. Jackman and Evans find themselves in a lethal game of cat-and-mouse, but are they the cats or the mice?