Detective Chief Inspector Jim Pendlebury almost died at the end of his last big case.
Three years later, he is struggling to cope with forced retirement and the frustration of failing to convict the teacher accused of killing an 18-year-old student after seducing her.
Now, he must try one more time to search for the vital piece of missing evidence the Police failed to find during the initial investigation .
Whatever the cost, this time he will make sure justice is served for the cruel murder of the beautiful young woman the media dubbed Miss Perfect.
Book Info: Print length: 178 pages. Publisher: SpellBound Books. Publication Date: 22 July 2022
About the Author:
I am a career journalist, joining the South Yorkshire Times as a trainee reporter in 1984 and moving on three years later to the sports desk of the Derby Telegraph, where I have been ever since.
Most of that time in Derby has been as the newspaper’s cricket writer and my coverage of Derbyshire CCC earned national recognition in 2013, when I won the England and Wales Cricket Board Regional Newspaper of the Year award. I have been a contributor for the last nine years to the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and have had many articles published in national magazines, annuals and newspapers.
Writing as a profession meant writing for pleasure was largely left on the back burner but changed priorities at work made it a priority to pick up the threads of one of the many half-formed novels in my computer files and, this time, see it through to publication. Sunbeam is the result.
I was born in Sheffield, the city I used as the backdrop for Sunbeam, and have lived in Derby since 1988 with my partner, Sue. We have two sons.
My Review:
I read a LOT of crime books and it’s getting harder to find an original plotline or one that my amateur couch detective skills can’t solve within the first few chapters, but The Murder of Miss Perfect really had me stumped throughout.
This is a really clever story told from multi view points in an unusual and unique way and at several points throughout this book I was left reeling and thinking WTAF.
DCI Jim Pendlebury is a well-respected, dedicated and thorough police officer in charge of one of the nation’s biggest cases, The Miss Perfect Murder.
18 year old Abbie Moran is the perfect student, daughter, friend, popular, beautiful and now naked and dead in her teacher’s house.
David Bales was 36, Abbie’s maths teacher and a married man when he crossed the line and became intimate with his student, but he swears he didn’t kill her, and when the jury agree with him and declare him Not Guilty everybody who was involved in this case is affected deeply.
The story has multiple narrators and first up is DCI Jim Pendlebury. Three years on from the verdict now retired and slowly recovering from a life threatening heart attack, he is still determined to prove that David Bales is guilty despite the jury’s verdict and won’t stop until he finds that missing evidence.
David Bales, is now living under a different name, in a different town and trying to keep his head down, but when Jim Pendlebury turns up out of the blue both their lives are changed forever and not in a good way.
There were so many red herrings that I didn’t spot and I really didn’t work out who or why until the last few chapters despite being suspicious about several of the characters along the way.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by Mark Eklid.
