Synopsis
At 5.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was trapped – stranded in a line of eight cars by a blizzard on a Norfolk coast road.
At 8.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was dead – viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck.
And his killer has achieved the impossible: striking without being seen, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow . . .
For DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine it’s only the start of an infuriating investigation. The crime scene is melting, the murderer has vanished, the witnesses are dropping like flies. And the body count is on the rise . . .
» Read the first six chapters of Death Wore White by downloading the Penguin Taster here
Reviews
Customer Review: 31 May 2009
Reviewer: Linda
'I loved this book and Shaw/Valentine as much as I loved Dryden & Humph.I greedily read it across two days, but now must wait impatiently for more.'
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Dear Reader
I hope you enjoy Death Wore White - the story of a murder that couldn't have happened.
It's a winter's night on the bleak North Norfolk coast, and a line of cars lies stranded in deep snow. When whizz-kid DI Peter Shaw arrives on the scene he discovers the body of a lone driver, mutilated, bled to death, still sitting in his pick-up truck at the head of the miniature convoy. But how did the killer leave no footprints in the snow - either going in, or coming out ? It's a baffling first case for Shaw and his aging sidekick DS George Valentine. But they're a good team, despite the fact that theirs is a partnership made in hell. If you enjoy watching them solve this impossible crime, the good news is there'll be another one along soon.
And remember - every detail counts.
Good luck
Jim Kelly
1
Monday, 9 February
The Alfa Romeo ran a lipstick-red smear across a sepia
landscape. Snow flecked the sands at the edge of the
crimped waters of the Wash. To the landward side lay
the saltmarsh, a weave of winter white around stretches
of cold black water. And out at sea a convoy of six small
boats were caught in a stunning smudge of purple and
gold where the sun was setting.
The sports car nudged the speed limit as Sarah Baker- Sibley watched the first flake of snow fall on the windscreen. She swept it aside with a single swish of the wipers and punched the lighter into the dashboard, her lips counting to ten, a cigarette held ready between her teeth.
Ten seconds. She thrummed her fingers on the leatherbound steering wheel.
It was two minutes short of five o’clock and the Alfa’s headlights were waking up the catseyes. She pulled the lighter free of its holder. The ringlet of heated wire seemed to lift her mood and she laughed to herself, drawing in the nicotine.
A spirograph of ice had encroached on the windscreen, so she turned the heating up to maximum. The indicator showed the outside temperature at 0°C, then briefly –1°C.
2
She dropped her speed to 50 mph and checked the rearview
mirror for following traffic: she’d been overtaken
once – the vehicle was still ahead of her by half a mile
– and there were lights behind, but closer, a hundred
yards or less.
She swished more snowflakes off the windscreen.
Attached to the dashboard by a sucker was a little picture
frame holding a snapshot of a girl with hair down to her
waist, wearing a swimsuit on a sun-drenched beach. She
touched the image as if it were an icon.
Rounding a sharp right bend she saw tail lights ahead again for a few seconds. And a sign, luminous, regulation black on yellow, in the middle of the carriageway, an AA insignia in the top left corner.
DIVERSION
Flood
An arrow pointed bluntly to the left – seaward down a
narrow unmetalled road.
‘Sod it.’ She hit the steering wheel with the heel of her
palm. Slowing the Alfa, she looked at her watch: 5.01 p.m.
She had to pick her daughter up at 5.30 outside the school.
She was always there, like clockwork. That was one of
the big pluses of owning her own business: she kept her
own time. And that’s why she always took the old coast
road, not the new dual carriageway, because this way there
were never any traffic jams, even in the summer. Just an
open road. Once, perhaps twice, she’d got caught up at
the shop and phoned ahead to say she’d be late. Jillie had
walked home then, but Sarah didn’t want to let her down.
Not tonight, when snow was forecast. She’d make it in
time, even with the diversion, as long as nothing else
delayed her.
Looking in the rear-view again she saw that the
following car was close, so she put the Alfa in first and
swung it off the coast road onto the snow-covered track.
The headlights raked the trees as she turned the car, but
she failed to see that they fleetingly lit a figure, stock-still,
dressed in a full-length dark coat flecked with snow, the
head – hooded – turned away. But she did see a road
sign.
Siberia Belt
Ahead were the tail lights of the vehicle she had been
following. There was a sudden silence as a snow flurry
struck, muffling the world outside. The wind returned,
thudding against the offside, fist blows deadened by a
boxer’s glove. She searched the rear-view mirror for the
comforting sight of headlights behind. There were none.
But the tail lights ahead were still visible: warm, glowing
and safe. She pressed on quickly in pursuit.
Product details
Format :
Paperback
ISBN: 9780141027517
Size : 129 x 198mm
Pages : 400
Published : 05 Feb 2009
Publisher : Penguin
Other formats for Death Wore White:
» ePub eBook: eBook : £5.50
Death Wore White
£8.99
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