'Still Waters'

By Nigel McCrery

"Your throat will have closed up almost completely by now," Violet murmured, "and your heart will have slowed down quite dramatically.   I don't know whether you will suffocate before your heart actually stops beating of its own accord, but either way you will be dead within a minute or two.   I don't even know if you can still hear me, but if you can, I'd like to tell you that you are a selfish, stupid old woman, and I've hated every single moment of the time I've spent with you.  Apart, of course, from the last few minutes.  Those I have enjoyed very much."

'Still Waters' is being adapted by leading UK screenwriter Gary Young ('Harry Brown') from the latest novel from best-selling author Nigel McCrery, the creator of some of the BBC's top-rated dramas including 'Silent Witness', 'New Tricks', 'Born and Bred' 'All the King's Men' and 'Back Up'.

"Highly original"  The Daily Mail "Impossible to put down"  The Daily Express "Outstanding"  Time Out

 "McCrery is destined to be one of the big boys of Crime Fiction"  The Daily Mirror

"Extremely creepy and compelling" The Book List

The discovery of an elderly lady in a ditch on a lonely stretch of road in East Anglia is the start of a compelling murder enquiry.

Before his diagnosis, DCI Mark Lapslie thought everyone was like him.   Now he knows he suffers from synaesthesia – a rare neurological condition that has cross-wired his senses.   The sickening clamour of sounds he can taste has smothered his marriage and stifled his career, leaving him alone and on indefinite sick leave.  He enjoys the silence.

So when a businessman wraps his high-performance sports car around a tree, Lapslie is surprised to be summoned to the scene.  He is assigned the glamorous Detective Sergeant Emma Bradbury who is reputed to be very good at her job.   But you don't call a DCI to a Road Traffic Accident – especially one sidelined by psychological problems.  But he's not there to investigate the driver's death, rather the dessicated corpse found lying next to him.  Something about the body stirs a fleeting recollection at the back of Lapslie's mind... he can't quite put his finger on it, but he can almost taste it...

Memories haunt Violet Chambers too.   She does what she can to stay ahead of them.  Taking tea with her elderly friend Daisy, she knows it's time to move on again.   As Daisy falls to the floor, skin burning, eyes streaming, Violet calmly sips her tea and waits.  Black hellbore is remarkably potent poison. It won't be long now.

DSI Lapslie's investigations put him on the trail of a serial killer who, it soon becomes clear, has struck again and again, moving from victim to victim stealing their possessions and identities.   But the detective is not the only one seeking the killer's true identity, for as she circles her latest victim, long-buries memories are beginning to surface...

'Still Waters' is a visceral thriller that will bring DCI Lapslie face to face with a calculating predator, where the troubled detective might just discover that his gravest weakness is simultaneously his greatest strength.

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Nigel McCrery, a former Police Officer from Nottingham, has created over half a dozen hit TV dramas.  'Still Waters' is widely acknowledged to be McCrery’s most original, compelling and frightening work to-date.

Still Waters

By Nigel McCrery

An opportunity not to be missed

'Still Waters' has sold in countries throughout Europe, Russia and the United States to rave reviews.  As a result, McCrery flew out to Los Angeles in the summer to begin negotiations for the UK book rights with several American TV Networks.   Both ITV and the BBC have expressed keen interest. 

For further information please call 08000 223345.