In a grand old mansion in the middle of the Sussex countryside, seven people have seen more than they should … The new chilling thriller from Lesley Thomson.

James Ritchie was looking forward to a boys’ day out with his son, Wilbur – even if he was a little late picking him up from the home of his ex-wife, Anna.

Annoyed by his late arrival, and competing for their son’s attention, Anna leaves the two of them to their day with the promise of a roast dinner when Wilbur returns.

But Anna will never see her family again. That afternoon, James and Wilbur are found dead, the victims of a double stabbing on the beach.

DI Toni Kemp, of Sussex police, must unravel a case which has shocked the county to its core. What she discovers will lead her to Blacklock House, a grand country mansion, long ago converted into flats. Here in the middle of nowhere, where a peacock struts the lawn, and a fountain plays intermittently, seven long-term residents have seen more than they should.

But this is a community who are good at keeping secrets …

Skilfully Crafted, Beautifully Written!

Another fantastic novel from Lesley Thomson – whose writing just keeps getting better and better!

When James Ritchie took his son, Wilbur, out for the day he expected to have fun flying a kite; he didn’t think they would be the latest murder victims. DI Toni Kemp and her team have the task of finding out what happened and why. Everything seems to lead to Blacklock House, a grand country mansion converted into flats with seven residents, none of whom seem to be very forthcoming. When the bodies start mounting up, DI Kemp has her work cut out for her.

The one thing guaranteed with this author’s novels is that they are never cut and dried. She creates the most amazing characters, wraps them up with fabulous dialogue into a seemingly unfathomable tale and thoroughly bamboozles her readers! There is a wonderful cast of characters in The Companion; I began by taking them all at face value and ended up trusting none of them. I would have said I suspected everyone at some point or another but, when I reconsidered, I realised that I never actually suspected the guilty of having ‘done the deed’! Skilfully crafted, beautifully written and another of this author’s novels which I am delighted to recommend highly and, of course, give all five sparkling stars.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy and to Sophie Ransom for my spot on this tour which I’m delighted to help kick-off today; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

Tags: crime thriller

• Format: ebook, paperback, hardcover
• Size: 364 pages
• Publisher: Head of Zeus – An Aries Book
• Publication Date: 09 June 2022
• Book Links:
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• https://www.foyles.co.uk
• https://www.whsmith.co.uk
• https://www.waterstones.com
• https://wordery.com
• https://www.amazon.co.uk

Author Details

I was born and brought up in Hammersmith, a few paces from the District Line in West London, I graduated from Brighton University  then moved to Sydney, Australia. In between writing my first attempt at a novel, I sold newspapers in a shop at Wynyard underground station in the heart of the city. If you want to know a city, get familiar with it’s subterranean transit system. Until then I had never seen a double-decker train.

I returned to London and did several jobs to support writing. This included working for one of the first Internet companies in the UK. For a while I was the only person I knew with an email address.

My first novel, Seven Miles From Sydney, came out in 1987 when it made  the City Limits top ten best books.  In 1990 I worked with actor Sue Johnston on her semi-autobiographical book, Hold Onto The Messy Times.

While reading for an MA in English Literature at Sussex University I wrote A Kind of Vanishing. It won the People’s Book prize for fiction in 2010.

I’m a guest tutor on the Creative Writing and Publishing MA at West Dean where with top crime writer Elly Griffiths, I also run a crime-writing certificate .  I lead workshops and take master classes on writing crime novels.

Alongside stand alone novels, I’m continuing best-selling The Detective’s Daughter series, featuring Stella Darnell (MD of Clean Slate Cleaning Services) and Jack Harmon, driver on London Underground’s District Line. Not forgetting Stanley the poodle.

The Distant Dead is the latest in this series.  Set in the Gloucestershire town of Tewkesbury and in London, it is #8 in The Detective’s Daughter series. Stella and Jack investigate a murder that takes them back to a murder committed during the Blitz in 1940. My next novel The Companion, a standalone set in the Sussex Downs and by the sea, is published in June 2022.

I’m lucky to live in this part of the UK. I walk a lot with our dog Alfred, (a raggedy poodle, he gave me the idea for The Dog Walker),  the perfect writer’s companion.

• Website: www.lesleythomson.com
• Twitter: @LesleyjmThomson
• Facebook: @LesleyThomson