Perfect Dead: A gripping crime thriller that will keep you hooked

Perfect Dead: A gripping crime thriller that will keep you hooked
Jackie Baldwin

Sometimes perfection is worth killing for…The second gripping crime novel in an exciting new series. Ex-priest DI Frank Farrell finds himself on the trail of a vicious killer in rural Scotland. Perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride, James Oswald and Val McDermid.Each murder brings him one step closer to the perfect death.Ex-priest DI Farrell is called on to investigate a gruesome death in rural Scotland. All evidence points to suicide, except for one loose end: every light in the cottage was switched off. Why would he kill himself in the dark?The question sparks a murder investigation that leads to the mysterious Ivy House, home of ‘The Collective’, a sinister commune of artists who will do anything to keep their twisted secrets hidden.And when the remains of a young girl are uncovered on a barren stretch of coastline, Farrell realises that there is something rotten in this tight-knit community. Now he must track down a ruthless killer before another person dies, this time much closer to home…

PERFECT DEAD

JACKIE BALDWIN

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Copyright (#u350febc5-ac4c-5ca2-b3e1-7e331bb5286d)

Broughton House and Garden, in Kirkcudbright, is the Edwardian home and studio of Scottish artist, E. A. Hornel, one of the early twentieth-century Glasgow Boys. It is owned and operated by the National Trust for Scotland. Any and all mentions of Broughton House and the National Trust for Scotland, beyond the mere fact of their existence, in this novel, are entirely fictitious.

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018

Copyright © Jackie Baldwin 2018

Cover design by Dominic Forbes © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com (https://www.shutterstock.com/)

Jackie Baldwin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © June 2018 ISBN: 9780008294335

Version: 2018-05-22

For Alex and Jenny

Table of Contents

Cover (#u10aba428-7f24-5103-ac9c-4d94ddab256a)

Title Page (#uf79bf76d-da6a-5322-8d92-43b43dc0df7d)

Copyright (#u2fd6f1aa-7b6e-55fd-b851-5793f6f7ca2f)

Dedication (#uc839965c-0507-51f7-bd92-d431d9172194)

Prologue (#ucc680fa1-ff62-5438-9d67-6cc0ff4b261e)

Chapter One (#ufbd1ac44-d009-5194-8ab1-b9218c61b633)

Chapter Two (#u11bcb9f6-2983-52a6-b0a1-3289c00c8470)

Chapter Three (#u59852b9e-a87f-5dfa-a7b8-1a21a7881a07)

Chapter Four (#u219cd27c-d1e8-544f-96d7-e423537029df)

Chapter Five (#ucaa26b99-1e0c-5008-b203-356fb9a4c497)

Chapter Six (#ueb1f1839-005e-5958-aa1d-38d6d261ddea)

Chapter Seven (#u4375966e-7a0d-5941-b504-74a6799a0971)

Chapter Eight (#u098a6b1c-ff3d-57f7-868b-39f68c24e155)

Chapter Nine (#u1489afe2-389a-5a91-b35b-6bdd2e6d1a10)

Chapter Ten (#u87fb6d72-4f84-5a62-8ad2-92bf738a5fc4)

Chapter Eleven (#ue37fe7a1-48d7-542a-a1ce-8d0ce7a9613e)

Chapter Twelve (#uab3c8496-d7ac-53aa-a4c7-1eef58f3330d)

Chapter Thirteen (#ue0c1bf7e-c07f-59ee-b30f-550fefd2308b)

Chapter Fourteen (#u6d5189fb-4dbf-5e86-ad6e-b3d3b18a8ad2)

Chapter Fifteen (#udbb3a387-f83f-54f0-bc3f-0aa252f162cb)

Chapter Sixteen (#u4ce61a44-3a3d-5bb9-b587-bab0e16b063b)

Chapter Seventeen (#ua47604da-f34c-569e-972f-58e4b3071178)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)