Now in her forties and firmly established as a Detective Inspector, Kate Ellis has reached a rare moment of balance. The long years of conflict, loss, and compromise have settled into something like contentment. She understands the job, trusts the team around her, and has built a life that finally feels right.

Then everything changes.

An unexpected diagnosis forces Kate into a confrontation with her own body, her identity, and the limits of the control she has spent a career trying to maintain. As treatment takes its toll, a new investigation lands on her desk—one that refuses to fit neatly into the patterns she relies on. The case grows darker and more complicated by the day, pulling Kate back into the same violent world where her career first began.

At the same time, the people closest to her are facing choices of their own, forcing Kate to consider how far she would go to protect family, and what the cost of love might be.

Altered States is a crime novel about survival, loyalty, and the ways equilibrium can be disturbed.

Altered States is the penultimate novel in the Detective Kate Ellis series. It will be published in spring 2027.