The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells first serialised in 1897 in the UK by Pearson's Magazine and in the US by Cosmopolitan magazine. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was in 1898 from publisher William Heinemann of London. Written between 1895 and 1897, it is one of the earliest stories that detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon.

Detectives Mike Lynch and Ben Torrens thought they had seen it all. Yet nothing could prepare them for what they were about to face. Freybourne, a quiet city populated with a mere 85,000 people and surrounded by bushland, is under attack. A serial killer with the most perverse fetish of allpregnant women- has turned it into a hunting ground. When the mutilated body of a young woman is discovered, shockwaves surge through the sleepy little community. Weeks later a second body, bearing the same trademark mutilation as the first, is uncovered. With few leads and even less forensic evidence left at the scene, Mike and Ben tackle their most difficult case yet, a case that sucks them deep into the seedy underbellies of some of Freybourne’s most well known establishments. When a lead points them to a Wellness Clinic, a web of lies and deceit begins to unravel. Will the Wellness Clinic pay the ultimate price for secrecy or will Mike and Ben crack the case before more bodies turn up? The pressure begins to mount when Mike discovers his girlfriend is pregnant and Ben’s ex-wife is somehow caught up in the investigation. The two men find their tempers running hot and their time running out.