Great North Road

In Newcastle-upon-Tyne, AD 2142, Detective Sidney Hurst attends a brutal murder scene. The victim is one of the wealthy North family clones – but none have been reported missing. And the crime's most disturbing aspect is how the victim was killed. Twenty years ago, a North clone billionaire and his household were horrifically murdered in exactly the same manner, on the tropical planet of St Libra. But if the murderer is still at large, was Angela Tramelo wrongly convicted? Tough and confident, she never waivered under interrogation – claiming she alone survived an alien attack. But there is no animal life on St Libra.

Investigating this alien threat becomes the Human Defence Agency's top priority. The bio-fuel flowing from St Libra is the lifeblood of Earth's economy and must be secured. So a vast expedition is mounted via the Newcastle gateway, and teams of engineers, support personnel and xenobiologists are dispatched to the planet. Along with their technical advisor, grudgingly released from prison, Angela Tramelo.

But the expedition is cut off, deep within St Libra's rainforests. Then the murders begin. Someone or something is picking off the team one by one. Angela insists it's the alien, but her new colleagues aren't so sure. Maybe she did see an alien, or maybe she has other reasons for being on St Libra...

About the Author

Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland in 1960, and still lives near Rutland Water. His previous novels include the Greg Mandel series and the bestselling and groundbreaking Night's Dawn Trilogy. His most recent novels are Pandora's Star (2004) and Judas Unchained (2005) – which constitute the Commonwealth Saga – and The Dreaming Void (2007), and The Temporal Void (2008) the first two novels in the Void trilogy, of which The Evolutionary Void is the concluding volume.