The embalmer, p.35
The Embalmer, page 35
part #3 of Mullins & Sullivan Series
She waited for his response.
‘But . . . ’ His mouth was dry. The words dried up. ‘Don’t leave without saying goodbye.’
‘Of course.’
She reached up and touched the black scar on his cheek, just for a moment. His fingers caught hers. He leaned forward to kiss her, his lips brushing hers for a brief moment. Then she was gone, back to her mother-in-law and her son.
Francis turned and walked down the lane to his car. He could still feel the touch of her fingers on his face. But the scar Marni Mullins left inside him would run far deeper and last for far longer than the one on his cheek.
Acknowledgements
I’m approaching writing this with some trepidation, having managed to misspell people’s names in the last two sets of acknowledgements I wrote!
Clearly, however, I won’t spell my agent’s name wrong. Once again, huge thanks to the wonderful Jenny Brown, of Jenny Brown Associates, who is both cheerleader for my writing and wise counsel for my writing career. I wouldn’t have reached the end of book three without her unflinching support. A great deal of thanks also to my editor at Trapeze, Sam Eades, who early on gave me some excellent writing advice, which I follow in every book: ‘Put you character in a bad situation, and throw in something that will make it worse. Then pile something else on top of that.’ Gratitude is due to Phoebe Morgan, who guided this book through its early stages while Sam was on maternity leave, and to the rest of the brilliant Trapeze and Orion teams who all work so hard to produce and sell their authors’ books.
As usual, I had expert input on policing matters from Superintendent (Retired) David Hammond of Staffordshire Police, who does far more to keep Francis Sullivan in line than DCI Bradshaw does!
Thanks are additionally due to, among others, my brother Nick Higgins for reading early drafts and to the members of my writing group – Jane Anderson, Jane Bradley, Gill Fyffe, Hannah Kelly and Lucy Lloyd – for critiquing and support.
As always, thanks and love to Mark, Rupert and Tim.
Credits
Trapeze would like to thank everyone at Orion who worked on the publication of The Embalmer.
Agent
Jenny Brown
Editor
Sam Eades
Copy-editor
Laura Gerrard
Proofreader
Kim Bishop
Editorial Management
Clarissa Sutherland
Charlie Panayiotou
Jane Hughes
Alice Davis
Claire Boyle
Audio
Paul Stark
Amber Bates
Contracts
Anne Goddard
Paul Bulos
Jake Alderson
Design
Lucie Stericker
Joanna Ridley
Nick May
Clare Sivell
Helen Ewing
Finance
Jennifer Muchan
Jasdip Nandra
Rabale Mustafa
Elizabeth Beaumont
Levancia Clarendon
Tom Costello
Marketing
Tanjiah Islam
Production
Claire Keep
Fiona McIntosh
Publicity
Alex Layt
Sales
Laura Fletcher
Victoria Laws
Esther Waters
Lucy Brem
Frances Doyle
Ben Goddard
Georgina Cutler
Jack Hallam
Ellie Kyrke-Smith
Inês Figuiera
Barbara Ronan
Andrew Hally
Dominic Smith
Deborah Deyong
Lauren Buck
Maggy Park
Linda McGregor
Sinead White
Jemimah James
Rachael Jones
Jack Dennison
Nigel Andrews
Ian Williamson
Julia Benson
Declan Kyle
Robert Mackenzie
Imogen Clarke
Megan Smith
Charlotte Clay
Rebecca Cobbold
Operations
Jo Jacobs
Sharon Willis
Lisa Pryde
Rights
Susan Howe
Richard King
Krystyna Kujawinska
Jessica Purdue
Louise Henderson
About the Author
Alison Belsham initially started writing with the ambition of becoming a screenwriter and in 2000 was commended for her visual storytelling in the Orange Prize for Screenwriting. In 2001 she was shortlisted in a BBC Drama Writer competition. Life and children intervened but, switching to fiction, in 2009 her novel Domino was selected for the prestigious Adventures in Fiction mentoring scheme. In 2016 she pitched her first crime novel, The Tattoo Thief, at the Pitch Perfect event at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival and was judged the winner. The novel became an international bestseller upon publication, and has now been translated into fourteen languages. The Embalmer is her third book.
Also by Alison Belsham
The Tattoo Thief
Her Last Breath
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Trapeze
an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment
London ec4y 0dz
An Hachette UK Company
Copyright © Alison Belsham 2020
The moral right of Alison Belsham to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (eBook) 978 1 4091 8271 9
Typeset by Input Data Services Ltd, Somerset
www.orionbooks.co.uk
Alison Belsham, The Embalmer
