Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A cat and mouse game of the most chilling kind in Bristol
Cut Out (DI Harland 3)
What you need to know before your trail
Nigel is a bit of a loner. So when he gets a new neighbour, Matt who invites him round to watch the football, he jumps at the chance to make a new friend. Trouble is that’s not where it ends – Nigel takes a shine to Matt, at his outgoing personality and shiny flat and wants to be like him, to be him.
Changing his flat to match Matt’s is the first step, followed by buying the same clothes, slowly adapting to as much of Matt’s look and lifestyle as he can.
Just where will it end? And who is that knocking at Matt’s door? Nigel wants to know everything…
Travel Guide
The house
The author based the house in the book on one he saw in Eastfield Road, a quiet residential street in Cotham, nicely hemmed in by the railway line. The setting is close to Stokes Croft – an area with tremendous character, full of independent shops and cafes, where almost every wall is covered in amazing street art. In many ways, the author explains, this neighbourhood reflects the spirit of modern Bristol, just as the grand old architecture reflects the city’s past.
And the Bristol of this book forms as we visit it over varying time periods – three months earlier, one month ago and two weeks ago and of course the present day with this house at the centre of the intrigue..
Nigel’s story and fixation with Matt starts in the past and soon takes on a life of its own. Matt’s girlfriend Laura is an unwelcome guest as far as Nigel is concerned and the already dark and insular world inside Nigel’s head gets darker still…
Present day – DI Harland and his team are looking into the case of a missing girl – one named Laura. The murder of a man found with his hands glued to the wall in the local pub’s toilet is another case he has to deal with, and the realisation that this all could be linked draws a dark picture of events past.
A quiet house on a quiet street in Bristol – could it really be the unassuming scene of the start of a crime which spread its obsessive and stalker tendencies further afield?
Do you know who is living next door to you? Someone who likes your clothes and life a little too much? And how prepared are some people willing to go to be just like you?
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Twitter: @fergusmcneill
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