‘Do you know who’s watching you?’
Today I join Paul Finch on tour with his latest book in the DC Lucy Clayburn series, Shadows. Just published by Avon Books (Harper Collins Imprint) I am delighted to be sharing an extract with you all today.
But first a little about what Shadows is about…
Book Info:
As a female cop walking the mean streets of Manchester, life can be tough for DC Lucy Clayburn. But when one of the North West’s toughest gangsters is your father, things can be particularly difficult.
When Lucy’s patch is gripped by a spate of murder-robberies, the police are quick to action. Yet when it transpires that the targets are Manchester’s criminal underworld, attitudes change.
Lucy is soon faced with one of the toughest cases of her life – and one which will prove once and for all whether blood really is thicker than water..
Continue reading for an extract from Chapter 5…
[Extract]
Why are we persisting with this cloak-and-dagger stuff, Jerry?’ Lucy asked quietly, after the bus recommenced its journey. ‘Can’t we just meet in the pub like everyone else?’
McGlaglen didn’t look around. ‘Because what I am giving you today, my dear, is the biggest tip-off you’re ever likely to receive.’
Lucy nodded. She’d heard this kind of promise before, but to be fair to McGlaglen, he rarely offered anything that wasn’t at least interesting. She clutched the horizontal bar at the top of his seat as they swung around a tight bend.
‘A particularly unpleasant fellow,’ McGlaglen added, ‘a true reprobate and degenerate is in town.’
He’d been given to using flowery language for as long as Lucy had known him; he even delivered it in a dramatic, Shakespearean tone, all traces of his local accent suppressed. It was something to do with his past, she understood, though she’d never questioned him on it. Police informers came in every shape and size; all that mattered was the reliability of their intel.
‘A true degenerate, eh?’ she said. ‘Go on. I’m all ears.’
‘The Creep. You know of this beast, I take it? He’s in the town now . . . as we speak.’
At first Lucy thought she’d misheard. ‘Sorry . . . what?’
He neither looked round nor raised his voice. The one thing Jerry McGlaglen defended more zealously that his air of faded flamboyance was his right to anonymity; when imparting information to his police handlers, he was never less than exceptionally wary. He would do nothing whatsoever to attract attention to himself from the ordinary public. To Lucy’s mind that somewhat contradicted his manner of dressing and speaking, but when she’d raised this with him once in the past, he’d replied that his attire served its purpose as a double bluff.
‘They look twice, that is undeniably true. But when all they see is a well-known eccentric, they rarely look again.’
‘The Creep?’ she said, puzzled. ‘You mean the lunatic who hangs around cashpoints in Birmingham late at night, robbing people at sword-point. You say he’s in town? You mean here . . . in Crowley?’
For more……
Purchase Link ~ Shadows
About the Author:
Paul Finch is a former cop and journalist, now turned full-time writer. He cut his literary teeth penning episodes of the British TV crime drama, The Bill, and has written extensively in the field of children’s animation and for Dr Who. However, he is probably best known for his work in thrillers, crime and horror. His most successful works to date are the six-novel DS Heckenburg crime series, and the new Lucy Clayburn series, the first instalment of which, STALKERS, reached no. 7 in the Sunday Times best-sellers chart.
Paul lives in Lancashire, UK, with his wife Cathy and his children, Eleanor and Harry.
Website ~ www.paulfinchauthor.com,
Blog ~ www.paulfinch-writer.blogspot.co.uk
Twitter as @paulfinchauthor
Follow The Tour
Intriguing cover and description!
I have it here to read Holly. On the pile!!!!! Will get there