'Unholy Alliance' by Juliet B Madison

Please check this out by my friend and fellow author Juliet B Madison. she's good and she deserves to be read! http://julietmadisoncrimeauthor.wordpress.com/unholy-alliance-official-release/

The new one from Tom Winton

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click on this link and it will take you to the page of Tom Winton's latest bestseller classic!

SORCEROR IS OUT NOW!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sorceror-Detective-Superintendent-Jeff-Barton-ebook/dp/B00GIVDB7E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1384244760&sr=1-1&keywords=sorceror+by+david+menon

THE WAITING IS OVER! SORCEROR IS OUT NOW!

Buy Sorcerer ahead of official publication for only £1.99

Go yo payhip now at www.payhip.com/b/NXpF and buy 'Sorceror' for only £1.99 or equivalent in your own currency.

Here's your sneak peak at chapter Two of 'Sorceror' - out on Monday!

On Didsbury high street in South Manchester, Jenny Lake was meeting her daughter Gabby in a small cafe called ‘Cameron’s Place’. She’d ordered a ham roll and when it came it wasn’t particularly inspiring. There was a heck of a lot of bread but not much ham and it was accompanied by a salad that was drenched in the strongest smelling vinaigrette she’d ever known.

     ‘Mum, you look like that sandwich is a major disappointment’ said Gabby.

‘Well it is’ said Jenny. ‘I overslept this morning and didn’t get any breakfast. I’m more than ready for something’.

‘Well change it’ said Gabby. ‘Say you don’t like it and ask for something else’.

Jenny sighed. ‘No, it’ll do’.

‘It won’t do, Mum, if you don’t like it’.

‘You know I don’t like to make a fuss’.

‘No, go on, Mum. Cameron won’t mind’.

 The café was owned and run by an Australian called Cameron James who was in his early thirties. He’d met a Manchester girl when she was travelling in Australia and fallen in love enough to follow her home. They were married now with a little son but that didn’t stop all the women from flirting with Cameron. He was the typical tall, lean, rugged Aussie type who always wore shorts as soon as the sun came out. He had the kind of relaxed, easy going manner that meant he got on with absolutely everyone. He’d joined the local cricket club and the local rugby club. His physical allure was enhanced by his curly dark brown hair and his face always being covered in five o’clock shadow. He had that kind of straight out of bed look that made the women who went into the café think he was the best bit of crumpet they’d laid eyes on for years. 

Cameron came over to the table with his usual relaxed antipodean swagger.

‘Is everything alright for you here, ladies?’

Gabby explained that her Mum didn’t like the sandwich and after a short debate Cameron said he’d bring her a cheese and tomato one instead and without the salad.

‘Sorry about that ladies’ said Cameron with his usual charm. ‘I’ve got a new bloke started in the kitchen and his techniques need a little refinement shall we say. But he’ll learn’.

‘You know, Cameron, if you weren’t married and I wasn’t deliriously happy with my fiancé then you and I could’ve been made for each other’ teased Gabby.

Cameron smiled. ‘Yeah, well maybe in the next life, honey’.

‘I’ll hold you to that’.

‘But how will I find you? You might come back as a cat or something’.

‘In which case, I’ll find you. You know what cats are like’.

‘Strike me pink it’s a good job my wife can trust me’.

‘If I was your wife I’d keep you under lock and key’.

‘Now there’s an image to get me through an otherwise tedious afternoon’ said Cameron and then winked at her before going off to the kitchen to sort out his apprentice.

 Jenny shook her head and smiled. ‘You are shameless’.

‘Mum, I’m getting married to a man I love very much but I’m not dead to the sight of some eye candy’.

Jenny didn’t quite know what to say to that. Her marriage to Gabby’s father had felt like one year folding into the next one and the next one. She wasn’t in love with Ed anymore. She didn’t know if she ever had been or if he’d ever been in love with her. They weren’t even comfortable with each other. They were distinctly uncomfortable at times and that could make time pass so slowly when they were at home together, especially since Gabby had flown the nest to move in with her fiancé Owen. They should’ve had more children but they hadn’t. They’d been putting off the inevitable for almost all of their twenty years of marriage and Jenny had learned to fill the gaps with going to the gym and making curtains.

‘You are sure about everything, aren’t you love?’

‘About marrying Owen, you mean?’

‘Yes’.

‘Of course I’m sure, Mum. Why are you asking me that?’

‘But you’re a pretty girl, Gabby, and you’re young’.

‘Where’s all this coming from?’ asked Gabby before cutting into her order of raisin toast with scrambled eggs.

‘I just don’t want you to wake up in ten years time and wish you’d had more freedom before settling down’.

‘I thought you liked Owen?’

‘I do, love, I do. I like him a lot, you know I do. But he’s not my concern. You are’.

‘And are we talking about me or you here?’

 Jenny’s response to her daughter’s direct accusation was momentarily paused when Cameron brought Jenny her replacement sandwich. She closed her eyes slowly to fight back the tears. What this was really all about was money. The bills for Gabby’s wedding had to be paid in two weeks time and Jenny didn’t know how she and Ed were going to do it. Jenny’s parents were both dead and had never had much money anyway. She didn’t earn much as a doctor’s receptionist. She’d never be able to borrow what was needed. It looked like her only option would be to ask Ed’s mother who lived in Spain. She’d helped them out before although Ed didn’t know. He’d have been furious if he had have found out. He’d never got on with his mother for as long as Jenny had known him.    

‘That’s not a question a daughter should ask her mother, Gabby’.

‘Mum, I know what it’s like between you and Dad and you’re both still young’.

‘I see’.

‘Or is it money, Mum? I know the letters that arrive for Dad. I know he’s got financial troubles’.

‘He always has had’ said Jenny. ‘That’s nothing new’.

‘Mum, do you still love Dad?’

Jenny breathed in deep and then said ‘I don’t hate him. And it’s not like I can’t stand the sight of him. But I wouldn’t call it love. Not in the way that you and Owen are in love. Not in the way your mate Cameron here crossed the world to be with his girl. There’s something there between your Dad and me but I don’t know what it is’.

‘Oh, Mum’ said Gabby as she squeezed her mother’s hand.

‘Ah, look, I don’t want to be talking about this now’ said Jenny. ‘I couldn’t be happier for you, Gabby. Owen is a great bloke and I do mean that. I just wanted to make sure that’s all’.

‘I know and I am happy, Mum’ said Gabby who’d fallen head over heels in love with Owen the first time she’d met him. She’d broken her ankle and Owen had been the casualty nurse who’d attended to her.  ‘I just wish you and Dad were too’.

 Jeff went to see Chief Superintendent Ian Hayward at the earliest opportunity. It was all he needed this morning. His son Toby had started wetting the bed again and at four o’clock this morning he’d been loading the washing machine with the wet sheets before trying to get a very distressed little five year old back to sleep. Toby had ended up sleeping in Jeff’s bed.    

‘Sir, something’s come up in the investigation that I need to talk to you about’.

‘Like what, Jeff?’ Hayward asked amiably although he had a good idea what Jeff needed to speak to him about. He’d been haunted by it for twenty years and as soon as the human remains had been found at Pembroke House he’d known that it would only be a matter of time.

‘Sir, do remember a young man called Ronnie Wiseman?’

Hayward swallowed and then cleared his throat. ‘No’ he answered. ‘Should I?’

‘You might’ve forgotten because it was a long time ago’ said Jeff who was convinced that Hayward was lying to him already. The body language was loud and clear. ‘He was a resident at the Pembroke House care home for boys back when you were a constable and it was on your beat. In a television programme he says he made a complaint to a police officer about having been physically and sexually abused at the home but he wasn’t allowed at that time to mention the officer’s name. The force took out an injunction against the name of the officer being revealed but we’ve found out that it was you’.

‘I don’t know what you expect me to say?’

‘I don’t expect you to say anything, sir. I’m just asking as part of the investigation because you see, we can’t find any record of Wiseman’s complaint ever having been recorded. Now we have found evidence in a dungeon-style basement area of the home that suggests that ritual, sadistic abuse took place there and we want to get to the bottom of it’.

‘Well it’s news to me, Jeff’.

‘So you wouldn’t know why that injunction had been taken out?’

‘Detective Superintendent Barton, I’m not aware of any television programme or any injunction’.

‘So would you also say that Wiseman is lying, sir?’

‘It’s hard to give a definitive answer to that without having the full facts to consult’.

‘I can make sure you have them, sir, and then perhaps we can talk again?’

Hayward regarded Jeff shrewdly. Of all the investigating officers under his command it would have to be Jeff Barton who’d been given a key into his past. He wouldn’t give up until he was satisfied he’d got to the truth. But Hayward couldn’t tell him anything without landing himself right in it up to his neck and further and there were others to consult before he could do that.

‘Well if there’s anything I can recall from all that time ago then I’ll be sure to tell you, Jeff’ said Hayward. ‘How is the investigation going, by the way?’

‘Slowly, sir’ Jeff replied. He was annoyed at having been fobbed off by his senior officer. What the Hell was Hayward hiding? They’d known each other a long time and there’d never been any whiff of scandal surrounding Hayward. ‘We’re looking at the staff records and at the record of residents. Sir, do you know someone called George Griffin?’

‘George Griffin?’ said Hayward. He spun the name round his consciousness until he could think of a convincing lie to disassociate himself from Griffin. He couldn’t think of one so he went for the basic. ‘No. Again, should I?’

‘He was manager of the care home when you were a beat officer, sir’

‘Well as you said it was a long time ago’ said Hayward who then shifted a little in his chair. ‘I can’t be expected to recall off the top of my head everyone on my beat at that time’.

You lying bastard, thought Jeff. ‘My team need to speak to him because he was the manager at the time we estimate the victims to have died and he could provide us with vital evidence. Not to mention the allegations made by Ronnie Wiseman’. He decided to fire a warning shot across Hayward’s bows. ‘We want answers, sir, and we will get them’.  

‘I’ve no doubt given your previous record’ said Hayward a little sharply.

Jeff then took the photograph of the toddler that had been found at Pembroke out of his pocket and handed it to the Superintendent.

‘Do you recognize this child, sir? The photograph was found amongst a pile of empty video cassette cases at Pembroke’.

Jeff watched Hayward’s face contorting, not dramatically, but just enough for him to be able to notice. Hayward recognized the child alright. Jeff watched him rub his hand over his mouth and try desperately to think of a form of words to add to the already established pattern of denial.   

‘Sir?’

‘No’ said Hayward. He handed him the photograph back. ‘I don’t recognize him’.

‘Are you sure, sir?’

‘Jeff, what are you implying?’

‘I’m not implying anything, sir. I’m just doing my job’.

‘Well I’m afraid I have to leave now’ said Hayward. He stood up. ‘I’m due for a meeting with the chief constable so if you’ll excuse me’.

Jeff was bristling with anger as he made for the door but then Hayward stopped him.

‘How are things, Jeff?’ he asked. ‘On a personal basis I mean? I know it’s getting on for a year since Lillie Mae died. I just wondered how you and little Toby were doing?’

‘We’ll get there, sir’ Jeff answered, unsure of where this was going. Why the sudden, deliberate shift to the personal? ‘It isn’t easy but we’ll get there’.

‘You must miss Lillie Mae very much’.

‘Well of course I do, sir’ said Jeff. What a stupid fucking question that was. ‘There’s a part of me that always will’.

‘I’m sure you’ll find happiness again, Jeff’.

‘Well that’s as may be, sir, but my priority at the moment is to make sure Toby feels secure and isn’t scared that I’m going to suddenly leave his life like his Mum did’.

‘I’m sure you’re doing a great job of that’ said Hayward. ‘Although it isn’t easy for us men to take over the nurturing, emotional role with children that women are so good at’.

‘Oh I disagree, sir’ said Jeff, firmly. He was highly sensitive to the still widely accepted view that women cope better as single parents than men do. ‘You just have to man up and use some emotional intelligence. That’s all it requires’.

     

    

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Chapter One of 'Sorceror' - Here's your sneak preview.

SORCEROR ONE

Pembroke House had once been a care home for boys until it closed in 1993. Since then the building had fallen into what local people thought had been terminal decline until a local property developer had recently bought it having seen its potential in a prime location close to the main Manchester university campus. They sent a team of builders in to excavate it and turn the twenty rooms into apartments for the student market. But the work had been abruptly stopped when the house gave up some grisly secrets.

Detective Superintendent Jeff Barlow of the Greater Manchester police received the call and dropped his son Toby off at school before driving straight over to what had now been closed off as a crime scene and where he met his deputy Detective Sergeant Rebecca Stockton.

‘Morning Becky’ said Jeff after he’d got out of his car.

‘Morning, sir’ said Rebecca. She didn’t let many people call her Becky but Jeff was one of them. ‘June Hawkins is waiting for us inside’. 

‘The builders must’ve started early’ said Jeff as they headed for the front door. ‘It was just before eight when I got the call’.

‘Well I was staying over at my Mum and Dad’s last night and they only live at the other end of this road so I was able to get here quickly’.

‘How are they?’

‘They’re good, thanks’ said Rebecca.

‘And how’s Toby?’

‘He walked into school holding hands with his little friend Emma this morning’ said Jeff, smiling. ‘It was so sweet’.

‘He’ll be breaking hearts one day’.

‘Yep. That’s my boy’.

The pathologist June Hawkins had a phenomenal reputation amongst the Greater Manchester force and worked with many of Jeff’s colleagues. She was decked out in her usual plastic zip-up suit covering her normal clothes. She’d set up a temporary laboratory on the ground floor of the building with large square bright mobile lights illuminating a long table. What was on the table wiped the smiles off Jeff and Rebecca’s faces instantly.  

‘This used to be a little baby’ said June, her voice more solemn than usual and looking down at the skeleton that was clearly that of an infant. ‘It was found by one of the builders and he’s still in shock. He said it reminded him of his grandson who’s only a few weeks old’.

‘Why couldn’t they have left it where it could’ve been discovered alive?’ wondered Rebecca in a mixture of frustration and sorrow. ‘Why did the poor little sod have to die?’ 

‘Well that’s for you to find out, honey, but I estimate it’s probably been here a while’.

Rebecca flinched. ‘Where was … it found?’

‘In the same place as the other two skeletons that have already been sent over to the lab’ said June.

‘They’re not babies as well?’ asked Jeff.

‘No’ said June. ‘Although one of them is a child of only about seven or eight years old. The other is an adult male. Now come with me’.

June led them through the door under the main stairs of the house and down into the cellar. It had clearly been used for storage. There were old mattresses and bed frames, chairs, even a small TV set. There were also some old, empty video cassette boxes leading Jeff to mention out loud that they must’ve been there a while because nobody uses video cassettes anymore. Then they followed June through some white plastic sheeting which was covering up what looked like had been some kind of secret door. It was sunken a meter or so back from the wall. June said that a bookcase had been covering the location of the door and the builders had found it when the bookcase literally fell to pieces with one touch. The door, which had now been removed, had been secured using three heavy sliding locks each of which had been reinforced with a padlock. Behind it was a large room and two more smaller rooms going off to the left. Rebecca didn’t know what it was but she felt the most incredible sense of impending evil. There was just something about the walls, the shadows the three of them were creating. It was as if they were bouncing off ancient pain and suffering that was now moving up the years and reaching out to be heard.

‘My God’ said Jeff as he looked round. There were chains hanging from the ceiling with cuffs attached, more chain and cuff restraints hanging from the walls and a bench with leg restraints on the floor beside it and handcuffs halfway up the wall in front. All that was missing was a teenage boy of average height to fill the space. ‘This was some kind of dungeon’.

‘That’s exactly what it was’ said June. ‘I think it’s clear that, given the locks on the doors meaning that somebody didn’t want to know that this place existed, nobody would be allowed in here unless they were given an invitation they couldn’t refuse’.   

 ‘Anybody know anything about the history of this place?’ Jeff wondered openly.

‘Well it’s been closed for twenty years’ said Rebecca. ‘Could the remains be that old, June?’

‘Yes, they could’ June answered. ‘But I’ll know more when I’m back at the factory’.

‘I grew up round here’ said Rebecca, looking round. ‘I remember there were always a lot of whispers about Pembroke House. They used to say it was where they sent all the naughty boys. My Mum and Dad used to threaten to send my brother here when he was naughty’.

‘So why would this be a place for your parents to threaten your brother with, Becky?’ asked Jeff.

‘Well it had been thought that the staff at Pembroke had been rather heavy handed in dishing out punishment to the boys in their care. Or at least that’s what was alleged. Nothing was ever proved’.

‘Well it looks like that could be true’ said June. ‘This was the underground lair of some pretty sick individuals. It was set up to cause pain’.

‘To your average teenage boy’ said Jeff.

‘Yes’ June confirmed.

‘Those thick iron cuffs must’ve been bloody painful’ said Jeff, looking up at them.

‘Well I expect that was the idea’ said June. ‘There are spots of blood that have dried into the wooden flooring all over the place. They were obviously brought down here for something that went way beyond punishment’.     

‘Looks like the talk about what went on in this place doesn’t go anywhere near the reality of what did happen’ said Rebecca.

‘And did they all get out alive?’ said June as she handed them a stack of black and white photographs. ‘Especially given what you can see on these’.

Jeff and Rebecca were profoundly shocked by the images depicting the most horrific sexual abuse of teenage boys by figures whose faces had been carefully focused out of the picture. The look of sheer terror and pain on the boys’ faces who were all restrained in relation to the cuffs they’d found in room. Various other implements of torture had also been used which made them both feel sick. There were also pictures of boys who’d been strapped down over the bench in the room and not only whipped and caned but also raped.

‘It looks to me like they’re stills from films’ said June, quietly. ‘I don’t think the victims would’ve ever forgotten their experiences but that’s if you can get them to open up’.

‘That’s probably what all the video cassette cases were for’ said Jeff. ‘They made the films and put them in there to sell them’.

‘The trade in perversion is sickening profitable’ said Rebecca.

‘Jesus, what these boys must’ve gone through’ said Jeff, shaking his head. ‘And they were supposed to be in the care of the state’.

‘That’s one of the most shocking things about all this’ said June. ‘Aren’t there supposed to be checks on these places? I mean, we’re only talking about twenty years ago. Surely there were procedures in place to stop something like this?’

‘Yes there were’ said Jeff. ‘But sick minds are unfortunately very clever too and that’s how they get away with their evil deeds’.

A young uniformed PC came up to them with one of the video cassette cases. ‘I went through them all and found this, sir’ he said as he handed a photograph to Jeff. ‘It looks like it had been put there randomly. It was in the fifth one down in a pile of about thirty’.

The photograph was of a toddler, a little boy about two years old. He was smiling into the camera and didn’t yet have many teeth. He was in a light blue polo style shirt and dark grey corduroy trousers. The picture had been taken at the coast, it looked like Blackpool Tower in the background and although he looked happy Jeff could clearly see something less wholesome in his eyes. It was a forced happiness. It was almost as if he was wishing for somebody to find out some terrible secret and then he’d be free. Jeff breathed in deep. It reminded him so much of how Toby had looked not so very long ago before life had dealt them both such a devastating blow.

‘There’s a smile but he looks sad to me’ said Jeff.

‘Let me see’ said June. She looked at it and then looked closer. ‘Don’t you think there’s something familiar about him?’

‘Like what?’ Jeff asked.

‘I don’t know’ said June.

‘Do you recognize him, June?’ asked Rebecca.

‘Well no but there is something about him that makes me think I should do’ said June. ‘But no, I’ve never seen the poor little love before. I wonder what his story is and why there’s a picture of him down here’.

Jeff knew that he and his squad would be under intense pressure to find answers quickly. The murder of children causes more revulsion amongst the public than almost anything else and the headlines in the media describing the ‘House of Horrors’ had already been fairly lurid. He and Rebecca went back to Pembroke House after the forensics team had discovered a large box containing film-making equipment. It was antiquated stuff by today’s standards, including old cameras and several rolls of 16mm film, but with the box they’d also found a stack of copies of ‘Today’s Filmmaker’ magazine dating from 1985 through to January 1993, a couple of months before the home closed its doors. Someone had clearly been making films down there but they probably wouldn’t have been able to sell them to the Disney channel. But they also needed to look at the history of the home in more detail and Rebecca took that as her job.

The home had been opened at the end of the forties and at one stage it had been seen as a model care home. Representatives from local authorities across the country came to see how it worked and were suitably impressed at the homely feel there was to the place. That enviable reputation continued until 1984 when everything seemed to change. A new manager by the name of George Griffin took over and soon the word got out that he’d thrown away all of what he called ‘the bleeding heart liberal methods of care’ and returned ‘old fashioned style discipline’ to the home. Curfews were put in place, every boy had jobs to do around the home and if they didn’t do them then all the ‘privileges’ such as television and socializing with the other boys were withdrawn. A local newspaper reporter once accused Griffin of running a prison instead of a care home but Griffin had been unrepentant. He said that the country was lacking in discipline and that it usually started with boys from the kind of social backgrounds that he was used to dealing with at the home. He said he adopted his tough regime as a means of preparing the boys to be responsible adults instead of burdens on the state but Tim went on to read that most of the former residents are now, with only one exception, either dead, alcoholics, drug addicts, or in and out of public institutions, mainly prison. Griffin always denied that physical punishment of the boys ever happened at the home but in 2001 a TV documentary about the care of children in care homes interviewed a former resident of Pembroke house called Ronnie Wiseman who said he’d made allegations of physical and sexual abuse in a statement to a police officer in 1989. He’d been sent there after his mother had suffered a nervous breakdown and couldn’t cope with him for a while. He was only going to be there a few weeks but in the end he was there for two years and he alleged that during that time he was subjected to regular beatings, sometimes for as little as taking one chocolate biscuit too many. It had been the sexual abuse though that he claimed had effectively ended his life at the age of fifteen. What raised Rebecca’s eyebrows though was the injunction that was taken out at the time of the documentary by the Greater Manchester police that prevented the name of the officer who Wiseman had claimed he’d given his statement to from being revealed. Rebecca thought this unusual to say the least and she called in a favour with an old colleague that gained her access to the restricted file with the officer’s name on it. When she saw it she went straight in to tell Jeff.

‘You are not going to like this’ she said after walking into Jeff’s office and closing the door.

‘Well give me a clue?’

Rebecca gave Jeff a brief summary of what she’d found out but with particular focus on the allegations made by Ronnie Wiseman.

‘So what happened to the allegations?’ asked Jeff. ‘Were they investigated?’

‘Well this is what you’re not going to like’ said Rebecca. ‘Wiseman told the TV programme that the police officer took everything down in a statement but he never got his day in court because he never heard anything after he’d made it’

‘I don’t understand?’

‘The TV crew tried to interview the police officer to whom Wiseman had made his statement but the Greater Manchester force took out an injunction against his identity being revealed and denied them access to him’.

‘But do we know who the police officer was?’

‘Well the file was restricted but I managed to get a peak’ Rebecca revealed.

‘You’d get in where water wouldn’t sometimes, Becky’.

Rebecca smiled. She loved it when he called her Becky. ‘Well being a pest comes in useful sometimes. Anyway Jeff, the officer was Chief Superintendent Hayward’.  

‘You’re joking?’

‘No, I’m not, although he was plain and simple police constable Hayward back then of course’.

    

http://youtu.be/VLccvrNZUn4?t=1s

As always, the story of the song is NOT the story of the book, but the title inspired me for the title of the book.

Detective Superintndent Jeff Barton

This is what I think he would look like and if the actor Tom Lister is available if they make the series for TV then he'd be perfect.

Well Hello there!

Well look, welcome to my blog! This is going to be mainly about my writing but knowing me there'll probably be a few other bits of chit chat and whatnot. You know the kind of thing.
I'm very excited because I'm going to preview my new book 'SORCEROR' with you. You can see the boss cover I've got for it! Atmospheric? Yeah. Indicative of the story? You bet ya! And you won't have to wait long.
This is interesting because it's a departure for me. It's the first in a series featuring my new detective Jeff Barton and I think you're going to like him.
So what can I tell you about Jeff? Well he's thirty-five, a Mancunian, a Detective Superintendent and a man who's grieving over the sudden death a few months ago of his wife from an aneurism. Jeff was devastated to lose her so young and he's now a devoted father to their five year-old son Toby. His deputy, Detective Sergeant Rebecca Stockton is more than just attracted to him but either he isn't picking up on the signals or he is and he's trying to say that she's not his type. Either way, she's going to have to be patient and wait for the right opportunity to come along to let him know how she feels. And it will come. She hoped so anyway.
Meanwhile they make a first class team and in 'SORCEROR' the remains of three bodies are found in a house close to Manchester university that's being renovated. One of the skeletons is of an infant, another is of a child. What happened there? Their investigations point to an horrific story of abuse that went on against teenage boys when the house was a children's home and even though they track down the manager and his wife from that time, they escape before justice is served. Or is justice going to be served another way? When Jeff figures it out the race is then on to find a killer who's come up with a complicated but ingenious plan to exact his revenge.
So, interested? Well, I'll be posting the first chapter on here in a few days. The book will go on limited release on 11th November on payhip, amazon, kobo, and smashwords. Then it'll be everywhere else on 1st December. I'll let you know as things roll on and I'm now hard at work on the second book in the series which is going to be called 'Fireflies' and it'll be out in the early part of next year.
In the meantime I'm nearing completion on a book that's set in Australia and features a private investigator called Stephanie Marshall. It'll be out at the end of January next year and I'll be posting more about it nearer the time.
Now I'm not turning my back on Sara Hoyland! Oh no, I'm just giving her a rest for a while but she'll be back next year and there may be a few changes in store for her. So watch this space!

Please let me know what you think and when I can, I'll get back to you.
So long for now and I'll be back with you soon.