Product Description
When you think the unthinkable, where do you turn?
Sugar & Spice is the UK #1 best-selling, controversial psycho-sexual crime thriller the agents called "the last taboo". The 11th best-selling ebook in the UK of 2011. (ref: future book.net)
Inspired by a news story of a man who begged a Judge to give him a longer sentence, because he knew he would harm another child if released without treatment, Sugar & Spice is meticulously researched, asking the questions society prefers not to have answered. At once disquieting and challenging, Sugar & Spice is car-crash reading.
~
It's every parent's worst nightmare: A child fails to return home. As hours turn to days, all they can do is hope. Some children never come back...
In the van's silent darkness Tina huddled, her body trembling, clutching her bike in front of her as a shield. Her screams had quickly subsided and she brought all her attention to bear on her plight.
She'd seen the van parked on the roadside.
She'd seen the man leaning into it.
What had happened next was a blur but she knew she was in the van now. Fear concentrated her mind.She was nine years old. Almost ten.
Old enough to realise what was happening.
Old enough to fear the worst.
As time passed she managed to control her emotions.
Eventually the vibrations eased. The engine was off. She took deep breaths in the eerie silence, preparing herself, hoping she was facing the doors. She had no way of being sure.
Her plan was a simple one. Her only one.
The door opened a fraction. What was he doing? She waited.
As the doors widened and daylight flooded in she saw something from the corner of her eye.
It was a reflex action to turn and look.
The bike fell from her hands, her body paralysed with fear as she saw Laura's partially clothed body hanging from the wall of the van adjacent to her, hands strapped above her, the weight of her body digging thongs into wrists that had long since ceased to bleed.
He pulled the door closed behind him as he climbed in.
Driven by the need to know, a mother confronts the man accused of her daughter's murder, he presents a compelling defence, convincing Claire not only that he is innocent of harming her daughter, but that his previous convictions were not what they seemed. Teaming up with a second-year psychology student and a fourteen year-old truant schoolboy, Sugar & Spice is the story of a mother's fight to bring one man's reign of terror to an end.
Sugar & Spice reached #2 on Amazon (#1 in thrillers). It reached #1 on the Waterstone's chart, is a top ten thriller on Kobo and was recently included in the UK iTunes new Breakout Books list for 2013.
Sugar & Spice is the UK #1 best-selling, controversial psycho-sexual crime thriller the agents called "the last taboo". The 11th best-selling ebook in the UK of 2011. (ref: future book.net)
Based on research and details from the case of child killer, Robert Black and his capture, Sugar & Spice was deemed "Too controversial for the British market."
A quarter of a million readers thought otherwise.
Would you trust a convicted sex offender to help you find your daughter's killer? Claire did...
Inspired by a news story of a man who begged a Judge to give him a longer sentence, because he knew he would harm another child if released without treatment, Sugar & Spice is meticulously researched, asking the questions society prefers not to have answered. At once disquieting and challenging, Sugar & Spice is car-crash reading.
~
It's every parent's worst nightmare: A child fails to return home. As hours turn to days, all they can do is hope. Some children never come back...
EXCERPT (WARNING - CONTAINS GRAPHIC DETAIL)
In the van's silent darkness Tina huddled, her body trembling, clutching her bike in front of her as a shield. Her screams had quickly subsided and she brought all her attention to bear on her plight.
She'd seen the van parked on the roadside.
She'd seen the man leaning into it.
What had happened next was a blur but she knew she was in the van now. Fear concentrated her mind.She was nine years old. Almost ten.
Old enough to realise what was happening.
Old enough to fear the worst.
As time passed she managed to control her emotions.
She knew the van would stop at some stage and the doors would open.
She knew that would be her only chance.
She sat and waited, fighting back the tears. Only girls cry, she told herself. She was tougher than that.
Eventually the vibrations eased. The engine was off. She took deep breaths in the eerie silence, preparing herself, hoping she was facing the doors. She had no way of being sure.
Not a chink of light broke the terrifying darkness of the van, only the motion of the vehicle giving her any sense of
direction.
Her plan was a simple one. Her only one.
To throw the bike at the man as he opened the door. And then to run. Just run. And run. And run.
For a while nothing happened.
For a while nothing happened.
Unbeknown to her he was enjoying a cigar. He liked a cigar before and after.
It seemed like an eternity before anything happened.
Then the van rocked slightly.
An acute mind reasoned he was getting out of the drivers cabin. A minute passed. She stared straight ahead, trembling fingers clutching the bike frame in readiness.
A chink of light. She psyched herself, flexing her muscles.
A chink of light. She psyched herself, flexing her muscles.
Waiting.
The door opened a fraction. What was he doing? She waited.
As the doors widened and daylight flooded in she saw something from the corner of her eye.
It was a reflex action to turn and look.
The bike fell from her hands, her body paralysed with fear as she saw Laura's partially clothed body hanging from the wall of the van adjacent to her, hands strapped above her, the weight of her body digging thongs into wrists that had long since ceased to bleed.
He pulled the door closed behind him as he climbed in.
~~~~~~~~
Driven by the need to know, a mother confronts the man accused of her daughter's murder, he presents a compelling defence, convincing Claire not only that he is innocent of harming her daughter, but that his previous convictions were not what they seemed. Teaming up with a second-year psychology student and a fourteen year-old truant schoolboy, Sugar & Spice is the story of a mother's fight to bring one man's reign of terror to an end.
Sugar & Spice reached #2 on Amazon (#1 in thrillers). It reached #1 on the Waterstone's chart, is a top ten thriller on Kobo and was recently included in the UK iTunes new Breakout Books list for 2013.
"Outstanding - compares well to any P.D. James novel."
An American Editor
"An unsettling read with echoes of Mo Hayder."
Crimetime.co.uk
"An unsettling read with echoes of Mo Hayder."
Crimetime.co.uk
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