Sunday, 29 October 2017
Broken Bones by Angela Marsons
Series: D.I. Kim Stone #7
Release Date: 3rd November 2017
Publisher: Bookouture
Publisher: Bookouture
Genres: Crime Fiction
Eeeeek!!!! I have an extract to share with you! But, not just any old extract! Its from the new book from Angela Marsons.................BROKEN BONES! Excited much? Lets read the book blurb first though!
BLURB
They thought they were safe. They were wrong.
The murder of a young prostitute and a baby found abandoned on the same winter night signals the start of a disturbing investigation for Detective Kim Stone – one which brings her face to face with someone from her own horrific childhood.
As more sex workers are murdered in quick succession, each death more violent than the last, Kim and her team realise that the initial killing was no one-off frenzied attack, but a twisted serial killer preying on the vulnerable.
At the same time, the search begins for the desperate woman who left her newborn baby at the station – but what looks like a tragic abandonment turns even more sinister when a case of modern slavery is uncovered.
The two investigations bring the team into a terrifying world of human exploitation and cruelty – and a showdown that puts Kim’s life at risk as shocking secrets from her own past come to light.
A gripping new crime thriller from the Number One bestseller – you will be hooked until the final jaw-dropping twist.
BLURB
They thought they were safe. They were wrong.
The murder of a young prostitute and a baby found abandoned on the same winter night signals the start of a disturbing investigation for Detective Kim Stone – one which brings her face to face with someone from her own horrific childhood.
As more sex workers are murdered in quick succession, each death more violent than the last, Kim and her team realise that the initial killing was no one-off frenzied attack, but a twisted serial killer preying on the vulnerable.
At the same time, the search begins for the desperate woman who left her newborn baby at the station – but what looks like a tragic abandonment turns even more sinister when a case of modern slavery is uncovered.
The two investigations bring the team into a terrifying world of human exploitation and cruelty – and a showdown that puts Kim’s life at risk as shocking secrets from her own past come to light.
A gripping new crime thriller from the Number One bestseller – you will be hooked until the final jaw-dropping twist.
EXTRACT
PROLOGUE
Black Country: Christmas Day
Lauren Goddard sat on the roof of the
thirteen-storey block of flats. The winter sun shone a grid onto her bare feet
dangling over the edge. The cold breeze nipped at her wiggling toes.
The protective grate had been erected some years
ago after a father of seven had thrown himself over. By the time she was eleven
she had stolen a pair of wire cutters from the pound shop and fashioned herself
an access point to the narrow ledge that was her place of reflection. From this
vantage point she could look to the beauty of the Clent Hills in the distance,
block out the dank, grubby reality of below.
Hollytree was the place you were sent if Hell was
having a spring clean. Problem families from the entire West Midlands were
evicted from other estates and housed in Hollytree. It was displacement
capital. Communities around the borough breathed sighs of relief as families
were evicted. No one cared where they went. It was enough that they were gone
and one more ingredient was added to the melting pot.
There was a clear perimeter around the estate over
which the police rarely crossed. It was a place where the rapists, child
molesters, thieves and ASBO families were put together in one major arena. And
then guarded by police from the outside.
But today a peace settled around the estate, giving
the illusion that the normal activities of robbing, raping and molesting were
on pause because it was Christmas Day. That was bollocks. It was all still
going on but to the backdrop of the Queen’s Speech.
Her mother was still slurring her way around the
cheerless flat with a glass of gin in her hand. Her one concession to the event
was the line of tinsel wrapped haphazardly around her neck as she stumbled from
the living room to the kitchen for a refill.
Lauren didn’t expect a present or a card any more.
She had once mentioned the excitement of her friends. How they had enjoyed
presents, laughter, a roast dinner, a chocolate-filled stocking.
Her mother had laughed and asked if that was the
kind of Christmas she wanted.
Lauren had innocently nodded yes.
The woman had clicked the television to the
Hallmark Channel and told her to ‘fill her boots’.
Christmas meant nothing to Lauren. But at least she
had this. Her one piece of Heaven. Always her safe place. Her escape.
She had disappeared unnoticed up here when she was
seven years old and her mother had been falling all over the flat pissed as a
fart.
How lucky was she to have been the only one of the
four kids her mother had been allowed to keep?
She had escaped up here when her mother’s drinking
partner, Roddy, had started pawing at her groin and slobbering into her hair.
Her mother had pulled him off, angrily, shouting something about ruining her
retirement plan.
She hadn’t understood it when she was nine years
old but she had come to understand it now.
She had cried up here on her sixteenth birthday
when her mother had introduced her to the family business and to their pimp,
Kai Lord.
She’d been up here two months earlier when he had
finally found her.
And she’d been up here when she’d told him to fuck
right off.
She didn’t want to be saved. It was too late.
Sixteen years of age and already it was too damn
late.
Many times she had fantasised about how it would
feel to lurch forward onto the wind. She had envisioned herself floating to and
fro, gently making the journey like a stray pigeon feather all the way to the
ground. Had imagined the feeling of weightlessness of both her body and her
mind.
Lauren took a deep breath and exhaled. In just a
few minutes it would be time to go to work. Heavy rain, sleet, snow, Christmas
– nothing kept the punters away. Trade might be slow but it would still be
there. It always was.
She didn’t hear the roof door open or the footsteps
that slowly strode towards her.
She didn’t see the hand that pushed her forward.
She only saw the ground as it hurtled towards her.
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