ASSUME NOTHING. BELIEVE NO-ONE. CHALLENGE EVERYTHING.

 

See no evil . . .

 

When Lizzie Barnsley is murdered along a canal after escaping from her abusive boyfriend, Dan Grant is called in to represent her alleged killer, Peter Box. The evidence is strong, but did he actually do it? He didn’t know Lizzie, so why would he kill her?

 

Hear no evil . . .

 

As Dan and his investigator, Jayne Brett begin their case, they discover a number of murders and disappearances along the canals, including the brutal killing of fourteen-year-old Rosie Smith ten years earlier. Rosie’s stepfather Sean had been accused of her murder, but then Dan finds out that Peter tried to confess to that crime but was ignored.

 

Speak no evil . . .

 

With the evidence strong and a client who won’t tell anyone what happened, Dan and Jayne have their work cut out, but when it becomes clear that Peter Box can’t have been involved with every murder and disappearance, they realise that they may have stumbled on to something far more sinister.

 

But the clock is ticking and time is running out for the next victim . .

 

The Darkness Around Her is the second book in the Dan Grant series, involving defence lawyer, Dan Grant, and a private investigator, Jayne Brett.

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The relationship between the two is complex, as Dan Grant was once Jayne's lawyer, when she was accused of murdering her boyfriend. Dan secured her freedom and her loyalty.

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This book takes up the story following From The Shadows, once more set in the small cotton towns of the Lancashire hills, the setting for my first six books. In this book, I had the canals of the north very much in mind, for the way they flow dreamily through green hillsides and past forgotten or renewed industry, but they are brooding and threatening in their own way. The waterways are shadowy places, and in the darkness there is always threat

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