Terribly in Love

Clara Hayes chases monsters for a living. As a young crime journalist in rain-soaked London, she lives off police scanners, late-night coffee, and the thrill of filing copy on the city’s latest horror: a string of ritualised murders by the so-called Mirror Killer. When a calm, intense stranger named Daniel Reed drifts into her orbit—“a freelance forensic photographer who sometimes works with the Met”—he seems to understand both her work and the darkness that comes with it. He offers insider details, she gets better stories, and the line between source and lover blurs fast.

Daniel is everything Clara has secretly wanted: attentive, unflinching, and utterly unfazed by blood and grief. Their whirlwind affair plays out in hidden Soho bars and along the Thames at night, while Clara’s friends watch her disappear into him. What she doesn’t know is that Daniel Reed is really Daniel Cross—the Mirror Killer she’s been writing about. He’s been using her articles to curate his legend, steering what the world believes about his crimes while memorising every weakness in the woman who unknowingly loves him.

When Clara finally stumbles on the truth—following him into the shadows and seeing the predator beneath the charm—her world fractures. She still loves him. She also knows exactly what he is. Torn between the man who made her feel seen and the killer she helped mythologise, Clara becomes the one person who can lead the police to him—or let him disappear. Turning him in might save lives, but it will also destroy the story she’s been telling herself about love, redemption, and who the real monster is.