The detailing on each figure was exquisite. Facial features recognisable at minuscule scale, hand-crafted garments threaded onto limbs like insects’ legs. A startling talent at work.

Shame about its application, mused the CSI, lifting the latest doll delicately from the victim’s rigid palm and sliding it into an evidence bag.

Leigh Loveday grew up in south Wales and now lives in the English Midlands, besieged by cats, writing fiction aggressively slowly. Find him loitering online at @leighloveday.bsky.social.