Sacrifice

Richard Hoskins is the last person you'd expect to find at the heart of a police investigation. A renowned university professor, his area of expertise is the study of African religions. But when an unidentified body was discovered in the Thames, the police asked for his help. It was an IT consultant on the way home from work who spotted the young boy's torso. Unable to identify the victim and uncertain of where to start, the Murder Squad turned to Richard to provide some answers over the manner of the boy's death. Was the killing ritualistic? Could it be traced back to a country, a tribe in Africa, from where the investigation might begin? This is Richard Hoskin's story, a layman's journey into the heart of one of the most notorious murder cases of recent years. As the police turned to the latest scientific techniques to solve the case, Richard's own search was darker and more sinister: analysing and exploring the way the boy was killed, and relating it back to Africa and a myriad of potential tribes and religions. It was a search that began with claims of 'muti' and voodoo but ended up looking for answers about human sacrifice.Insightful and grippingly written, SACRIFICE is both an inside account of an extraordinary crime investigation and an absorbing study into the dark heart of humanity.