Third in the PI series, Thicker than Water finds Kit O'Malley trying not to become too embroiled in the feud between three Melbourne crime families, while dealing with ghosts from her past, and a strange missing persons case. The women's bar known as Angie's is the last place anyone expected to find the dead body of known-criminal Gerry Anders, and O'Malley soon discovers that helping her family of friends out of trouble can be just as dangerous as facing a deranged killer - only more complicated. She has to deal with an old nemesis from her days of the force; the matriarch of the notorious Riley clan, who takes a liking to her; a troublemaking journalist; and a Romeo and Juliet scenario. Kit's ex-partner, Detective Inspector Jon Marek, is not coping with the ugly reality of his on-going hunt for a serial killer; and, as the Feds are still spying on everyone, Kit's courtship of the gorgeous Alex Cazenove remains under wraps. To cap it all off a good friend and his strange Russian-American client go missing, and suddenly everything points to old grudges and unresolved family tension. Everything, that is, except the very strange connection to Melbourne's Bubble-Wrap Killer.
