Book cover design & photography: John Boden
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Kate Madden is a private detective. She lives in a small Norfolk town, and she’s short of work.
When Steve Hawkins, her teenage crush, turns up with a request to find out who is stalking him, she reluctantly takes on the job. Thinking it might involve blackmail, and perhaps the need to intimidate his stalker, she wonders if this is something she really wants to get involved with. But when Steve goes missing before paying her, she thinks it might be in her own interests to track him down. The trail leads to illegal gambling joints, a seaside brothel, and ageing rock stars. It seems that Steve’s youthful bad behaviour is about to catch up with him. But no one wants to tell her what happened on one particular night twenty years ago. To freshen things up I decided to write this in the first person as a woman. It seemed to be a fun thing to do, after a couple of previous books in a similar style with male protagonists. Kate Madden is smart, with an inwardly turned sense of humour. She knows enough about guns and self defence to make her someone you wouldn’t want to meet on a dark night (if you were a bad guy). Although ethics concern her, she’s more interested in getting the job done. |