Alex Hastings - probation officer and idealist - still believes in the good in other people, but the little town of Highpoint is becoming a very dangerous place for her. An arsonist is starting fires on the Somerset Levels and a sexual predator stalks the streets looking for his next, perfect victim. As the summer heat turns the surrounding countryside to tinder, Alex must deal with this fresh wave of criminal activity under the increasingly watchful eye of the Senior Officer. As her friends settle into new lives, Alex hopes for a brighter future, but will the increasing pressures of her work stand in the way?

Jennie began writing fiction following a year at Teesside University where she studied on the MA in Creative Writing. After graduation she began to enter competitions to gauge the market and was runner up in the Lit Award of the Ruhr in 2010. Her first novel, Death of the Elver Man was shortlisted for the Impress Prize in the same year and published by Impress Books in 2011. The Drowners (2013) and The Moth Man (2014) followed and Smoke and Adders completes this series. Jennie still works occasionally as a teacher, lecturer and dyslexia specialist and is now working on a new series of books she describes as "Northern Dystopias". Having lived at various places around England, including Essex, London and Somerset, she is happily settled in the north-east.