The Rule of Fear

The Rule of Fear
Luke Delaney

The new novel by Luke Delaney, ex-Met detective and author of the terrifyingly authentic DI Sean Corrigan series. Perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Peter James and Stuart MacBride.Danger lurks on every corner. But the threat comes from within.Tasked with cleaning up the notorious Grove Wood Estate, Sergeant Jack King is determined to rise to the challenge. But it’s not just drug dealers and petty thugs his team have to worry about. Someone is preying on children and they need to hunt down the culprit, fast.Soon King finds himself in over his head: the local residents won’t play ball, and he’s refusing to admit that he’s suffering from PTSD. As the pressures combine, the line between right and wrong starts to blur and King finds himself in a downward spiral. Only he can save himself – but is it already too late?

Copyright (#u31ff74c7-7df8-54db-aa05-f8cc4faa6a67)

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

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

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Copyright © Luke Delaney 2016

Luke Delaney asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Cover design by Dominic Forbes © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Cover photograph © Paul Thomas Gooney/Arcangel Images (main scene);

Shutterstock.com (http://www.Shutterstock.com) (back jacket and texture)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This is entirely a work of fiction. Any references to real people, living or dead, real events, businesses, organizations and localities are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. All names, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts 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 e-books

Source ISBN: 9780007585724

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2016 ISBN: 9780007585748

Version 2017-03-28

Dedication (#u31ff74c7-7df8-54db-aa05-f8cc4faa6a67)

I dedicate this book to all the police officers, the length and breadth of the country, regardless of rank, who work tirelessly under difficult and often dangerous circumstances so the rest of us can live our lives much as we please. Imagine a country without a strong and reliable police service and think how much that would damage the quality of all our lives – no matter how wealthy or powerful we may be.

Having done the job for many years, I know how testing – how physically and mentally hard – it can be, not just on the individual, but on their families and friends. It often demands complete commitment to the cause to the exclusion of everything else. It’s simply what’s required to get the job done, but it makes it a very demanding job indeed. We should all be very grateful there are still thousands of police officers serving their communities with such dedication and diligence, despite increasingly poor working conditions and pay. Without them there would be no society as we know it.

Some people will misunderstand this book and maybe even see it as an attack on the police, but I can assure you it is anything but. It is a warning – the character of Jack King representing an entire police service within one man. If we do not treasure and care for the things we value most, then it’s only ever a matter of time before we lose them. Not everything can be pulled back from the brink. It is a very dangerous thing indeed to give people great power, as each officer has, yet through such poor pay place them perilously close to poverty. Desperate people will sooner or later take desperate actions.

Remember the old saying – a society ultimately gets the police it deserves.

So, to every cop out there looking after all of us, I say thank you and dedicate this book to you.

LD

Table of Contents

Cover (#u4434ed10-191c-5cb0-806c-2dcd03ce67e3)

Title Page (#u0cc13dae-e2f3-5b4f-ab60-e66a5e2946a9)

Copyright (#u020a6e32-44a3-50a8-ac8f-f679d094724a)

Dedication (#u69ed2f15-7233-5079-9efb-84cd3efc9281)

Chapter 1 (#u61f65e66-a5d2-50a5-bef0-61985099a807)

Chapter 2 (#u51c14db8-2d12-5b2f-84d9-9811f47c52a0)

Chapter 3 (#u99fe434e-9426-5d3c-be3b-e31082c91492)

Chapter 4 (#u1113a70a-6950-595c-aab2-c5e82b87c7d1)

Chapter 5 (#uca5398ee-d226-557a-8990-e96808a621ea)

Chapter 6 (#ud97e6a84-c83b-54c2-bf3f-56762a3c9a31)

Chapter 7 (#uc70454d9-68c8-5a59-99e1-62ad43bb2b37)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading … (#litres_trial_promo)