Two Bodies in 9C

About this book

In the walled city of Saltmarrow, warmth is issued by the body, and Thermal Auditor Marit Hale counts bodies for a living. Twice a month she climbs the stairwells with her counter, stands eight minutes in each flat, and reads the people inside by their heat. She has never miscounted. She will tell you so herself. Then the counter says there are two bodies in Flat 9C on Tallow Street, home of Teodor Ashby, the city's last piano tuner, who lives alone. Marit decides to find the second body before she files, and finds instead that a man's heat can rise on a screen when she steps closer, and that hers rises too. Harbouring costs a citizen everything. Lying costs an auditor more. And Marit has been lying to someone for a very long time.