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2000s: A stranger stalks the streets of Houghton le Spring
2000s: A stranger stalks the streets of Houghton le Spring
The stranger who is stalking the streets of Houghton le Spring is worrying DI Lorraine Hunt. Then the daughter of her partner DS Luke Daniels is attacked and things start getting even more sinister. Has she been attacked at random or is something more sinister going on? She does have a dark past but was getting back on her feet but there’s concern that this past may have caught up with her.
Before long, Lorraine and Luke’s worst fears are realised, and a body is found. A young woman, brutally murdered, her heart cut out, and in its place – a single white rose.
And that is just the first flower of many…
As with every book of Sheila Quigley the title is a song and the alternate title would be A Kiss from A rose such is the strange nature and graphic killings of the women involved.
Welcome to the Seahills estate which is of course fictional given the amount of crime and murder that takes place here. Sheila herself has lived on a Sunderland estate for over 30 years so you get a sense that the everyday (minus the murders etc) has been witnessed, experienced and observed for many years with fine eyes and a notebook.
The people here are salt of the earth characters and working class heros. An estate where the sense of community holds fast and when there is a police raid over the road, everyone crowds round their windows eager for a glimpse of the action. Very real, very gritty and a way of seeing the estate and the people living there through their own eyes as well as those of the police.
Coupled with the smattering of Geordie phrases and terms of endearment though the book and you can almost taste the Newcastle Brown Ale as you read.
Destinations: Houghton le Spring, Dublin Departure Time: 2000s
Facebook: facebook.com/sheila.quigley Web: sheilaquigley.com
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