End of Innocence is the first in a non-fiction series ('Truly
Unforgotten') exploring UK cold cases. This book focuses on the 1978
disappearance of Genette Tate. The 13-year-old schoolgirl vanished while
out delivering newspapers on her bicycle in the Exeter countryside; no
trace of her was ever discovered. With new and rarely seen comments from
family, police and inside the courtroom, the story links her case to the
earlier abductions of April Fabb (also 13), Christine Markham (9) and
Mary Boyle (6). None of these unsolved cases was assumed to be linked
until 1990, when a man was apprehended having just kidnapped a
six-year-old girl. That man was Robert Black, a notorious murderer about
whom relatively little has been written. Black was eventually charged
with four murders and sentenced to life, though the true number of his
victims was very likely far higher. Police were preparing to charge
Black with Genette Tate's abduction and murder when he died in prison in
2016.