Believe No One

A.D. Garrett

Jul 2014 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

Forensic expert Professor Nick Fennimore has engineered lectures in Chicago and St Louis – a ploy to get to Detective Chief Inspector Kate Simms. She’s in the United States on sabbatical with St Louis PD, and he’s keen to see her again. Simms is working with a ‘method swap’ team, reviewing cold cases, sharing expertise. But Simms came to the US to escape the fallout from their previous case – the last thing she needs is Fennimore complicating her life.

A call for help from a sheriff’s deputy in Oklahoma seems like a welcome distraction for the professor – until he hears the details: a mother dead, her child gone – echoes of Fennimore’s own tragedy.

Nine-year-old Red, adventuring in Oklahoma’s backwoods, has no clue that he and his mom are in the killer’s sights. Back in St Louis, investigators discover a pattern: victims – all of them young mothers – dumped along a 600 mile stretch of I-44. The Oklahoma and St Louis investigations converge, uncovering serial murders across two continents and two decades. Under pressure, the killer begins to unravel, and when a fresh body surfaces, the race is on to catch the I-44 killer and save the boy.

Ratings and reviews

Love Margaret Murphy's work. I would like to see more of Abigail Hicks as a character. She is appealing , well rounded and highly competent. The book is more about her than it is about Simms and Fennimore. The only misstep is some gumph about Fennimore's research assistant at the end. This does nothing to contribute to the story, and little to contribute to the backstory. Overall excellent and a worthwhile read.

About the author

A.D. Garrett is the pseudonym for prize-winning novelist Margaret Murphy, working in consultation with policing and forensics expert, Helen Pepper.

Margaret Murphy has written 9 internationally published psychological thrillers - both stand-alone and police series. She is Writing Fellow and Reading Round Lector for the Royal Literary Fund, past Chair of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), and founder of Murder Squad. A CWA Short Story Dagger winner, she has been shortlisted for the First Blood critics' award for crime fiction as well as the CWA Dagger in the Library. Her lifelong passion for science is reflected in her painstaking research for her novels.

In 2013, writing as A.D. Garrett, Margaret began a new forensic series, featuring Professor Nick Fennimore and DCI Kate Simms. Everyone Lies, which Ann Cleeves rated 'thriller writing at its best', was a bestseller, and Believe No One, was described by Publishers' Weekly as a 'stellar thriller'. Truth Will Out, the third in the series, is due for publication November 2016.

Helen Pepper is a Senior Lecturer in Policing at Teesside University. She has been an analyst, Forensic Scientist, Scene of Crime Officer, CSI, and Crime Scene Manager. As a Crime Scene Investigator, she examined over 3000 crime scenes, ranging from thefts and fires to rapes and murders. Later, as Crime Scene Manager for Durham Police, she supervised CSIs in over 50 major incidents. An author in her own right, Helen has co-authored, as well as contributed to, professional policing texts. Her expertise is in great demand with crime writers: she has been a judge for the CWA's Non-Fiction Dagger award since 2010, and is Forensic Consultant on both the Vera and Shetland TV series.

Website: www.adgarrett.com
Follow A.D. Garrett on Twitter: @adgarrett1