Dying For You
Page 21
‘Shouldn't we go in?’ Rafferty asked.
‘God, no. Davy's still fussing over the wine. The red's too cold apparently and the white's too warm. Still not allowed to drink either of them.’ She looked sideways at him. ‘Hope you're not so fussy?’
Rafferty shook his head. ‘All I require of wine is that it's wet and makes me maudlin’.’
‘Me, too. Besides, you don't imagine Davy allows smoking indoors?’
Rafferty was only too well acquainted with the fact.
‘Why do you think I came out here?’ She made as if to rise. ‘Do you need a corkscrew?’
‘No. I always buy screw-tops. Saves time.’
‘Ditto. So much easier.’ She settled back on the doorstep, her shoulder pressed companionably against his and echoed his previous words. ‘You sound like a man after my own heart.’
And as he loosened the screw top, Rafferty believed that Llewellyn might just be right. Again. After his recent tragic brush with romance, he had made the firm decision to put thoughts of improving his love-life on hold. But now, with his typical swift Libran shift from one viewpoint to its opposite, he realized his decision had been weak. Didn't they say you should get back on a horse immediately after a fall?
Not that Abra bore any resemblance to a horse; not, he amended, if you discounted her hair, which she wore in a long, shining plait that reached halfway down her back, or her legs, which were long and slender.
He poured the wine and lit her second cigarette. ‘Dafyd tells me your name means ‘Mother of Multitudes’,’ he told her. ‘Will you be do you think?’
‘Not bloody likely.’
Rafferty smiled and leaned back happily against her shoulder. For, after all, as he told himself happily, his Ma didn't need to know that.
About the Author
Geraldine Evans has been writing since her twenties, but never finished anything. It was only hitting the milestone age of thirty that concentrated her mind. She then wrote a book a year for six years, only the last of which (Land of Dreams), was published. As well as her popular Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series, she has a second mystery series, Casey & Catt and has also had published an historical novel, a romance and articles on a variety of subjects, including, Historical Biography, Writing, Astrology, Palmistry and other New Age subjects. She has also written a dramatization of Dead Before Morning, the first book in her Rafferty series.
She is a Londoner, but now lives in Norfolk England where she moved, with her husband George, in 2000.
Dying For You is the sixth in her 15-strong humorous Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series. She is currently working on the next in the series. She also hopes to put out a seventh ebook later in 2011.
You can learn more about Geraldine Evans and her novels at http://www.geraldineevans.com
Other eBooks
Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-BPA8GByM
DEAD BEFORE MORNING
A Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery novel
By Geraldine Evans
Available from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Android, iPad, iPhone, iBookstore, etc.
First in the fifteen-strong Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series.
Detective Inspector Joseph Rafferty is investigating his first murder since his promotion. What a shame the victim is a girl with no name and no face, found in a place she had no business being – a private psychiatric hospital. With everyone denying knowing anything about the victim, Rafferty has his work cut out, so he could do without his Ma setting him another little problem: that of getting his cousin ‘Jailhouse Jack’ out of the cells. Although he has no shortage of suspects, proof is not so plentiful. It is only when he remembers his forgotten promise to get his cousin out of the cells that Rafferty gets the first glimmer that leads to the solution to the case.
Links
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EYUHN8
Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004EYUHN8
* * *
Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t8yxlChfaE
DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN
A Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery novel
By Geraldine Evans
Available from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Android, iPad, iPhone, iBookstore, etc.
Second novel in the fifteen-strong Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series.
When beautiful Barbara Longman is found dead in a meadow, uprooted wild flowers strewn about her and, in her hand, a single marigold, Inspector Joe Rafferty at first believes the murder may be the work of the serial killer over the county border in Suffolk. But then he meets the victim's family – and, after liaising with the Suffolk CID, he rapidly comes to believe that the killing is the work of a copycat… one much closer to home, someone among the descendants of the long-dead wealthy family patriarch, Maximillian Shore. Everyone, it seems, had a motive: Henry the grieving widower; the victim's brother-in-law, Charles Shore, the ruthless tycoon; Henry's first wife, the Bohemian Anne, who has lost the custody of Maxie, her teenage son, to the saintly Barbara. Even the long-dead patriarch, Maximillian Shore, seems, to Rafferty, to have some involvement in the murder, though how, or why, Rafferty doesn't understand until he finally grasps the truth behind the reasons for the killing. A truth sad and dreadful and which had been evident from the start, if only he had had the eyes to see.
Links
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042P53NS
Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0042P53NS
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Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTOg75pLNzc
DEATH LINE
A Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery novel
By Geraldine Evans
Available from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Android, iPad, iPhone, iBookstore, etc.
Third novel in the fifteen-strong Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery series
Jasper Moon, internationally renowned ‘Seer to the Stars’, had signally failed to foresee his own future. He is found dead on his consulting-room floor, his skull crushed with a crystal ball and, all, around him, his office in chaos.
Meanwhile, Ma Rafferty does some star-gazing of her own and is sure she can predict Detective Inspector Joe Rafferty's future – by the simple expedient of organizing it herself. She is still engaged on her crusade to get Rafferty married off to a good Catholic girl with child-bearing hips. But Rafferty has a cunning plan to sabotage her machinations. Only trouble is, he needs Sergeant Llewellyn's cooperation and he isn't sure he's going to get it.
During their murder investigations, Inspector Rafferty and Sergeant Llewellyn discover a highly incriminating video concealed in Moon's flat, a video which, if made public, could wreck more than one life. Was the famous astrologer really a vicious sexual predator? Gradually, connections begin to emerge between Moon and others in the small Essex town of Elmhurst. But how is Rafferty to solve the case when all of his suspects have seemingly unbreakable alibis?
Links
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004T3FQR6
Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004T3FQR6
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Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW-NByLllQ4
THE HANGING TREE
A Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery novel
By Geraldine Evans
Available from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Android, iPad, iPhone, iBookstore, etc.
Fourth novel in the fifteen-strong Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery series
‘The original crossroads used to run by here,’ Sam told Rafferty. ‘Legend has it that this was the old Hanging Tree.’
When Inspector Rafferty first hears the report that a bound and hooded body has been seen hanging from a tree in Dedman Wood, he dismisses it as a schoolboy hoax, especially when police at the scene find nothing out of the ordinary.
But his anxiety rises sharply when the witness turns out to be a respectable local magistrate, who identifies the corpse as Maurice Smith, a man once accused of four child rapes. Thrown out on a legal technicality, Smith's case had become a cause-celebre which had generated much ill-feel
ing within the community.
Rafferty and Sergeant Llewellyn visit Smith's home – to discover he has mysteriously disappeared. And in his flat they find a threatening letter, and fresh bloodstains…
Then the body turns up again in the woods. Could there be a self-appointed executioner at work, meting out his own form of justice on the legendary Hanging Tree?
Links
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004T3FQR6
Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004T3FQR6
* * *
Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIguV6g69lY
RELUCTANT QUEEN
Henry VIII's Defiant Little Sister
By Geraldine Evans
Available from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Android, iPad, iPhone, iBookstore, etc.
The story of Mary Rose Tudor, Henry VIII’s younger and favourite sister. The one after whom he named his famous ship, the Mary Rose.
Mary, the beautiful, younger sister of English king, Henry VIII, reluctantly agrees to marry the aged and sickly Louis XII of France. But before agreeing, she extracts Henry's promise that she may please herself for her second marriage. Mary is deeply in love with the low-born Charles Brandon, her brother's boon companion, and is determined to wed Brandon should King Louis die.
At the French court, Mary is pursued relentlessly by her aged husband's debauched heir, Francis. And with the death of her husband and Francis's elevation to the French throne and absolute power, her situation becomes desperate. Unprotected, Mary is a captive prey to Francis's lust for her.
Will she ever be free to go to her lost love? Because since Louis's death, Mary has become increasingly anxious about the rumours she heard concerning her brother's plans for her future. Does Henry intend to push her into another loveless marriage to suit himself and the State?
King Henry sends Charles Brandon to the French court on a diplomatic mission. Desperate, Mary persuades him to go through a secret marriage with her.
Then, fearfully, they await Henry's reaction, aware that no one, not even his much-loved younger sister, defies him with impunity.
Links
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004T3FQR6
Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004T3FQR6
By Geraldine Evans
Front Matter
Title Page Copyright Page
Dying For You CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
About the Author
Other eBooks
By Geraldine Evans
The Rafferty and Llewellyn Mystery Series
Dead Before Morning
Down Among the Dead Men
Death Line
The Hanging Tree
Absolute Poison
Dying For You
Bad Blood
Love Lies Bleeding
Blood on the Bones
A Thrust to the Vitals
Death Dues
All the Lonely People
Death Dance
Deadly Reunion
Kith and Kill
The Casey and Catt Mystery Series
Up in Flames
A Killing Karma
Historical Novel
Reluctant Queen
Romantic Novel
Land of Dreams
Dying For You
Increasingly conscious of his lonely state, Detective Inspector Joe Rafferty signed up with the Made in Heaven dating agency, using an assumed name to stop his nosy Ma finding out what he'd done. What he hadn't bargained on was that the first two women with whom he struck up a rapport should wind up murdered – and with himself, or rather his alter ego Nigel Blythe, in the frame for the crime.
Will the anonymity of the alias be enough to carry him through the investigation? And will the extra time he's bought prove sufficient to find the women's real killer before the finger of suspicions is pointed at him?
* * *
‘Evans brings wit and insight to this tale of looking for love in all the wrong places.’
—Starred Review from Kirkus
‘It's bad enough being suspected of a double murder, worse still when it's your alter ego being pursued and it's the pits when you are the policeman in charge of supposedly catching yourself. I thoroughly enjoyed Dying For You, the sixth in the series, A lot of humour is injected in Rafferty's narrative. He's got himself in an impossible situation and one wonders what can go wrong next. I savoured this book and am keen to read the rest in the series asap.’;
—Eurocrime
‘Twists, double twists and triple twists. Two solid hours of reading pleasure.’
—New Mystery Reader
‘For the growing number of Rafferty and Llewellyn fans this latest novel in the series by Geraldine Evans will certainly not disappoint. This is a very enjoyable read with a plot that moves at a good pace, is full of surprises, has lots of humour and a very satisfactory denouement. Highly recommended.’
—Mystery Women
‘A fun read for the mystery lover who enjoys tales with a twist. A cleverly-plotted tale. Enjoy.’
—Murder and Mayhem Bookclub
Dying For You
A Rafferty & Llewellyn Mystery
by
Geraldine Evans
Dying For You
Copyright © 2004 and 2011 by Geraldine Evans
Discover other titles by Geraldine Evans at www.geraldineevans.com
Published by Geraldine Evans
All rights reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Except for text references by reviewers, the reproduction of this work in any form is forbidden without permission from the publisher.
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Dying For You
A Rafferty & Llewellyn Mystery
CHAPTER ONE
Detective Inspector Joseph Rafferty's Monday had started badly. But, although he had banged his head on a corner of the kitchen shelf, nearly set fire to his flat when he left the toast to its own devices while he hunted for pain killers, and received a threatening letter from the electricity company for non-payment of its red bill, all the morning's irritations failed to dent his new-found happiness.
It took his arrival at work to do that - and the discovery that the day - potentially the rest of his life - was about to take a turn for the worse.
As he entered the police station, a song hovering on his lips, from behind the desk Constable Bill Beard hailed him. ‘Heard the latest, Inspector?’
‘Surprise me,’ Rafferty unwisely invited.
‘We've a new murder case. The ‘Lonely Hearts’ murder the lads are calling it.’ Beard shook his grey head. ‘These young women - no sense, some of them. Seem to positively put themselves in the way of murderers.’
His head still throbbing from its argument with the shelf, Rafferty had let Beard's news wash over him. It was only when Beard mentioned the name of the victim that Rafferty's head shot up as if someone had inserted a 1000-watt probe into his rectum.
Fortunately, as Beard spoke, there was a tremendous clap of thunder directly overhead and the storm which had been threatening since the previ
ous Friday freed itself from its meteorological shackles and lashed the car park and the few poor under-dressed souls caught between it and the safety of the police station. It distracted Beard from Rafferty's shocked reaction.
Above the noise of the downpour and the curses of the soaked stragglers as they tumbled into reception, Rafferty found a strangled voice to utter the dead girl's name. ‘Estelle Meredith?’ before he floundered to a halt, his new-found happiness washed into the gutters like the car park's litter. Dimly, he perceived trouble afoot.
As the soaked complainants dispersed to their work stations, emptying reception, Beard raised shaggy eyebrows and asked, ‘Knew her, did you?’
Instinctively Rafferty denied it. ‘Me? No. Not at all. Never met the girl in my life.’
His sleeping conscience stirred, called him ‘Peter’, for his thrice-denial. But although his conscience might throw accusations about with Old Testament fervour, he was relieved when Beard shrugged aside his odd response.
Fortunately, the news had been broken by Bill Beard rather than one of the station's ambitious young blades whose observational skills had been honed to recognise guiltily furtive replies when they heard them. But Beard was desk-bound nowadays and his ambition - never very strong - had withered on the vine as he plodded his way to retirement.