BOOK BLURB
Can two wrongs ever make a right?
A man is found by the side of a canal, comatose and brutally attacked.
It quickly becomes clear that someone is abducting men and subjecting them to horrific acts of torture. After three days they're released, fighting for their lives and refusing to speak.
A councillor is accused of fraud.
Montague Mason is an upstanding member of the community. That is until he's publicly accused of stealing the youth centre's funds - an accusation that threatens to rip through the very heart of the community and expose his best-kept secret. But how far would he go to protect himself?
Two cases. One deadly answer.
As the two cases collide, D.I. Paolo Sterling finds he has more questions than answers. And, when torture escalates to murder, he suddenly finds himself in a race against time to find the killer and put an end to the depravity - once and for all.
Detective Inspector Paolo Sterling is expecting someone from the Bradchester Youth Centre to bring over a list of possible vandalism suspects. However, that isn’t who arrives in his office.
Five minutes later CC ushered in a woman Paolo guessed to be in her late sixties. She was dressed completely inappropriately for her age, wearing a flared denim skirt and bright striped tee-shirt in alternating lines of yellow and black. Paolo expected her to start buzzing at any moment.
“Are you in charge of what happens at the youth centre?” she demanded.
“I’m the investigating officer, yes. Won’t you please take a seat,” Paolo said, gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. “I believe you have some information for me.”
“I do indeed and I hope you’re going to do something about it. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Really I couldn’t. It’s a disgrace. That’s what it is, a disgrace.”
“Well, it’s certainly unfortunate, but –”
“Unfortunate! How can you say that when you don’t even know why I’m here? Unless you put them there. The way society is today, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
Paolo thought he now knew how Alice felt when she’d dropped down the rabbit’s hole. “I’m sorry, I think we’re talking at cross purposes. I thought you had come from the youth centre.”
“I have,” Clementine Towers said. “I’ve just come straight from there and I want you to do something about it.”
“About what?”
“The books, of course. Why else do you think I’m here?”
Paolo thought he saw a glimmer of light. “That is not for me to investigate. I’ve turned that over to financial crimes.”
“What? Why? What have the finances got to do with it? They are all donated.”
The light blinked out and Paolo felt like he was back with Alice.
“Shall we start again?” he suggested. “Tell me, Miss Towers, are you here to bring me a list of names prepared by Mr Mason and his staff?”
She looked as bewildered as Paolo felt. “No, why should I?”
Paolo smiled. “No reason at all. It was just a misunderstanding. What can I do for you?”
“You can send in your men to remove the filth on the shelves in the youth centre.”
“I’m afraid you are going to have to be a bit more specific.”
“Books, officer! Books that will corrupt the minds of our young if we allow them to be read. I went there today. I go every day to see what I can do to help out. As a gesture of goodwill I took in all my old Richmal Crompton and Enid Blyton novels to donate to the open library. Do you know the young woman there was barely civil to me? She had the cheek to say those books were hardly likely to appeal to anyone. Old-fashioned she called them. Do you know what’s on the shelves there? The complete range of the dreadful Potter books, that blasphemous Pullman trilogy, not to mention those subversive Twilight books and the Lord only knows how many others equally vile.”
Paolo realised too late that the woman had the light of an evangelist in her eyes. Silently promising to get his own back on CC for passing a madwoman on to him, he smiled at his visitor.
“I’m afraid the books at the centre are outside my remit.”
“Perhaps,” she said, “but not outside your remit as a parent to explain to your daughter the error of her ways!”
“What on earth has my daughter to do with anything?”
“She was the one who was so rude to me! In fact, she told me to mind my own business.”
Paolo found himself silently applauding Katy and wishing he could follow her example, but he couldn’t tell the woman to get lost, unfortunately.
“Look, I don’t think reading a bit of fantasy hurt anyone.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she hissed. “Fantasy leads young minds into the dark arts. It’s because of books like that we have murders and rapes in the classroom!”
Paolo stood up. “I promise you I’ll look into it. Allow me to show you out.”
She smacked her palm down on his desk. “Don’t humour me, young man. I’ve been held against my will in the grip of evil forces. I know what it’s like to be sucked into the depths of depravity. I’m going to keep an eye on things over at that centre and if there’s any sign of –”
“You let me know if you spot any evil doings,” Paolo said, moving towards the door and opening it. “I’ll certainly look out for you and will take action if I see you again.”
She stood up and shook out her denim skirt, looking him up and down. “You are responsible for this town’s morals. I’m not sure you’re up to the job, but I’ll pray for you.”
AUTHOR BIO
Author Bio – When not working on her D.I. Sterling Series, Lorraine Mace is engaged in many writing-related activities. She is a columnist for both Writing Magazine and Writers' Forum and is head judge for Writers’ Forum monthly fiction competitions. A tutor for Writers Bureau, she also runs her own private critique and author mentoring service. She is co-author, with Maureen Vincent-Northam, of THE WRITER'S ABC CHECKLIST (Accent Press). Other books include children’s novel VLAD THE INHALER - HERO IN THE MAKING, and NOTES FROM THE MARGIN, a compilation of her Writing Magazine humour column.
Social Media Links –
Website: www.lorrainemace.com
Blog: http://thewritersabcchecklist.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lomace
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lorraine.mace.52
PUBLICATION DATE: 13th February 2020
PRINT LENGTH: 490 Pages
PUBLISHER: Accent Press Ltd
ISBN-10: 1786156857
ISBN-13: 978-1786156853
GENRE: Police Procedural
PURCHASE LINKS..
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1786156857
US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1786156857
The D.I.Sterling series
Retriever Of Souls
Children In Chains
Injections Of Insanity
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