The Conversion Killings

It’s early 1987. Newly qualified psychologist Ellie Green sees her career collapse under funding cuts in the prison service. A temporary post with West Yorkshire Police offers a way to stay afloat, placing her at the start of a new era in policing.

Two murder victims are linked to a series of violent assaults on gay men across Leeds, drawing the investigation into the city’s hidden nightlife. But there are no clear leads, witnesses are too afraid to come forward, and no obvious pattern.

When a high-profile victim is found dead, new forensic evidence sends the enquiry in a complicated direction. Ellie finds herself at the centre of a major case, in a role she doesn’t fully understand, using methods no one truly trusts. She must piece together a pattern the police cannot see before the body count rises and the case slips out of control.

The Conversion Killings is a crime thriller set in 1980s Yorkshire, against the backdrop of the Leeds gay scene during the AIDS crisis. A police force still haunted by its own failings in the wake of the Yorkshire Ripper begins to adopt early behavioural science, leading to a tense CID investigation. It will appeal to readers who enjoy grounded police procedurals with dark humour and a psychological edge.