Synopsis

A psychological legal crime thriller

A lawyer, a murderer and a policeman – caught in a tangled web of love, loss, terror and intrigue in this driving psychological thriller. 

When criminal lawyer Julia Grant interviews Sam Smith who has been charged with a vicious murder, she feels a strange connection to him. 

Has she met him before? Does he hold a key to her lost childhood memories? 

He feels a connection too. 'Julia, you are the only one who can help me,' he pleads. 

Is it the same connection? Does he know something she cannot recall? 

When he is duly convicted despite her best efforts, he suddenly turns on her in the courtroom and threatens that one day he will make sure to wreak his revenge on her. 

But why? 

What has she ever done to him?

From the best-selling author of Golden Sapphire

Excerpt

The door to the jury room swung open. The seven men and five women filed in and took their seats. Julia glanced at the dock. Perched behind the thick protective glass Sam Smith looked immaculate in a fresh white shirt, the blond beard newly trimmed, nothing moving except those marble blue eyes. 

She saw Paul come in through the swing doors. He sat down in the seats reserved for the police, glanced at her and smiled ─ a slow half smile and a slightly raised eyebrow, as if to say that for only one of them would today's outcome be successful.  

She tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear and smiled back. Defence versus Prosecution. Part of the day's work. Only this time the stakes were higher than usual.  

Sam Smith was also watching her, his face so alien it was hard to imagine how the thoughts that had haunted her in the eight months she’d been preparing his defence had ever entered her mind. Even a hardened criminal like Smith must surely feel some trepidation now. But there was nothing. Not even a flicker to show he registered one iota of emotion. 

The Clerk of the Court rose to his feet. ‘Will the court please stand.’ 

The door opened. Mr Justice Steel strode to his red leather chair, scarlet and ermine robes flowing, wig well down his forehead. He nodded to the crowded court and sat down. 

Julia pressed her shoulders against the back of the bench. Another five minutes and it would all be over. And what then?

He might be free, but would she ever be?

The Clerk of the Court cleared his throat. ‘Will the foreman of the jury please stand.’ He looked directly at the foreman. ‘Have you reached a verdict upon which all of you are agreed?’

‘Yes,’ the foreman said.

Julia looked straight ahead. Remembering what Ben had told her this morning she cringed with embarrassment. ‘You’re the best young criminal lawyer in Manchester and you’d better make sure you uphold your reputation and that of our partnership,’ he’d said as she left for the court. Huh. A fat lot of good her reputation was doing her now.

Something made her look at Smith again as if he’d called her name out loud. Clearly he’d been waiting for her to look at him, knowing that