Cheating and Lies - Paperback

by Mark Basford (Author)

An old woman is found murdered at home. In her mouth is a playing card, the Queen of Clubs. DCI Marcus Priestley finds a connection to a dying woman, but she and her only living relative have watertight alibis. He searches for other crimes where the obvious suspects could not have been the perpetrators. Believing there may be a broad conspiracy behind the various cases, he sets out to unravel the web of connections. DI Penny Baker arrives to run the original murder investigation. She is attracted to Marcus and tries to impress him with high-risk behaviour. Following unsuccessful abduction attempts on them, they are thrown together for protection. They pursue a connection to a drug dealer, leading to a violent and tragic outcome.

Author Biography

Growing up in Yorkshire as the second-youngest from a family of seven children, the author suffered illnesses at key moments that affected his progress through grammar school and university, which deflected him from an academic path. While working in finance and IT, he graduated in banking, mathematics, computing and business administration. After taking a creative writing course at Sheffield University, he became a full-time novelist.