Series: A Tara Thorpe Mystery #2
Published by Bookouture on October 17 2018
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
Pages: 367
Amazon UK
Goodreads
Meet Tara Thorpe – she’s Cambridge Police’s newest recruit… but her dark past is never far behind her. Perfect for fans of Faith Martin, LJ Ross and Joy Ellis.
When a body is pulled from the dank and dangerous fens on the outskirts of town, everybody assumes it was a tragic accident. But Detective Tara Thorpe, newly joined and determined to prove herself, suspects there’s more to the story.
Tara is desperate to investigate further, but her supervisor Patrick Wilkins has other ideas. He would rather die than let this ambitious upstart show him up – even if it means some digging in Tara’s secret past to keep her under his thumb. After all, it’s not like he can report her – everyone knows that his boss Detective Garstin Blake and Tara have a history…
When another body is found, it becomes clear that there’s a killer on the loose. Could the murders be linked to the secrets that Tara has been keeping from her team… and can she solve the case before another innocent dies?
An unputdownable page-turner that will keep you hooked until the very last page!
I am really excited today to share with you an excerpt from the book Death on the River by Claire Chase. This is the second book in the series, and both books are sitting proudly on my kindle waiting for me, calling me!
So what did everyone think of the first day of the blog tour of Death on the River (click on their names to see the full review)….
Over on
Bitsaboutbooks she says “The writing is entertaining, gripping, and pulls you right in. I did not want to do anything else but to finish the book first”
On Jen med’s book review (Guest reviewer Mandie) says “What I love about Clare’s books is that although they may not be
fast paced orgraphic in their detail they still manage to get you hooked, creating characters that although they have their flaws are not defined by them nor do they impact on their ability to do their jobs.“
And finally on Orchard book Club “Death on the River is the perfect follow on in this gritty series. Clare has a nack of setting a scene and her characters are easy to see as an actual person.”
Wow, it makes me more excited to read more!
So without further ado let us check out what is in store for you…..
Prologue
Late September, the Fens
Agneta Larsson watched an eel slide off the dead man’s arm as the police divers removed his body from the car he’d been driving. The classic Alfa Romeo was still partially submerged in the waters of the Forty Foot Drain, dark and swirling where the team worked.
Agneta stood at the top of the bank, clothed in her white overalls. She’d observe for now, then move down by the water once the body was pulled clear to give her first impressions. She wouldn’t be sorry to get back to the mortuary at Addenbrooke’s, though. It might be where she cut up cadavers, but there was something far eerier about the Fens.
The Forty Foot Drain itself was notorious; countless drivers landed themselves in it has come off the raised road that ran along its bank. Problems were more common in winter when the weather was bad. But last night had been a warm autumn evening. The accident investigators would be working overtime to try to find out what had happened. Of course, the body might provide the answer: a heart attack at the wheel, or too much to drink, leading to a mistake with catastrophic consequences.
Larsson shivered in the morning air and looked out over the landscape. All that black soil, and the endless sky. Flatland, lonely and bleak, as far as the eye could see. Today, the heavens were almost indigo, and rain fell in thick droplets, the weather finally breaking after a two-week Indian summer. The birds were absolutely silent.
It was as though everything had paused, holding its breath.
And then, at last, the first hint of thunder came; a low, angry rumble, threatening something more. Above it, she could hear the voice of Detective Sergeant Patrick Wilkins, making light of the scene in front of him. She knew it was a defence mechanism, but there were ways and ways of dealing with death. And now he and Detective Constable Max Dimity seemed to be arguing. She zoned out. Wilkins made her feel argumentative too, but this was n’t the time or the place.
It wasn’t long before they were ready for her to take a closer look.
She made her way down towards the water, edging forwards, her weight on the balls of her feet to avoid slipping on the wet grass. The dead man was dressed in a white linen shirt and well-cut casual trousers. The saturation of his clothes meant Agneta could see the shape of his body underneath; the slight thickening of his waist, the lack of firm definition around his ribcage. The smell of the water weeds rose off him.
His head was bruised – probably where it had hit the steering wheel as he ’d crashed. But it was his right hand and arm that surprised her. They bore multiple bruises too, and not the sort she’d expect from the impact of his car hitting the water. She thought for a moment about the road, at the top of the bank. There had been no skid marks – no sign that the driver had made any attempt to avoid his fate. That suggested he might have passed out at the wheel – have fallen asleep perhaps, or simply been too drunk to display the normal reactions.
But the bruises suggested otherwise. They spoke of wild flailing limbs. His left hand and arm wouldn’t have connected with much, but his right would have hit against the partially lowered driver’s side window and the car ’s frame. The drowned man had thrashed around before he died. If he ’d suffered
She sighed. It was pointless speculating. She needed to cut him open and let the physical evidence speak for itself.
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