Peter Turnbull

Five years after Duncan Percival is rendered a vegetable after a vicious attack, he finally dies. DCI Hennessey and DS Yellich are brought in to investigate what is now a murder case. As they delve deeper, the detectives are drawn into Yorks criminal underworld where grasses are punished and the gruesome Chelsea Smile is the favoured method of retribution...

Here is the memorable tale of a human colony world cut off from Earth by alien conquerors. It is the story, too, of a young woman gifted with mind powers who forms a telepathic bond with a catlike humanoid from a crashed starship--a first contact which may prove key to the survival of both races.