Do you like police procedurals with great characters and real grit?
Discover Detective Tom Mariner in this critically acclaimed series.
Two teenagers go missing on the same day. Just a coincidence?
The two young people are from very different backgrounds: Yasmin is the talented, grammar-school-educated daughter of devout Muslim professionals. Ricky disappears after storming out of his council house after an argument with his mum’s latest boyfriend.
DI Mariner knows Ricky's mother from his days in uniform. He is furious when his superiors take him off Ricky’s case and reassign him to the more politically sensitive investigation. The press — and his bosses — are convinced that Yasmin's disappearance is a racially motivated abduction. The Akrams have been the target of a far right group.
But Mariner soon discovers that Yasmin is far from the innocent victim her parents think she is. Can he get to the bottom of a perplexing case where no one is what they seem?
Find out the answers in this crime mystery full of stunning twists and turns.
Perfect for fans of Peter James, Ian Rankin and Peter Robinson. This is the second book in the DI MARINER SERIES, more books coming soon!
THE SETTING
Birmingham is a city of stark contrasts with a rich cultural and historical heritage. Playing a key role in the industrial revolution, it helped shape the nation’s manufacturing industry
But with its many green spaces, Birmingham also borders on the beautiful countryside of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, is just a few miles from Stratford on Avon and a short drive from the wild country of mid-Wales.
Birmingham’s population is large and ethnically diverse, and while urban regeneration has forged a modern and culturally vibrant city, the decaying remnants of the industrial past and 1960s concrete jungle give it a unique and gritty character; the dark underbelly policed by DI Tom Mariner and his team.
Detective Inspector Tom Mariner is, on the surface, an average dedicated policeman, but his experiences as a younger man have given him an insight into life on the dark side, and a clear sense of right and wrong. Mariner has little interest in material things. He lives in a modest canal-side cottage, enjoys the occasional (real) beer and game of dominoes and drives an old car. He is most at home in the outdoors, with an OS map and a compass, and in times of crisis, will take off and walk for miles in any weather.
THIS IS A REVISED EDITION OF A BOOK FIRST PUBLISHED AS “BLOOD OF THE INNOCENTS.”
DI MARINER SERIES
Book 1: Deadly Lies
Book 2: Innocent Lies
More coming soon!
AUTHOR BIO
Chris Collett grew up in a Norfolk seaside town where she worked in a boarding house (now defunct) a local bakery (closed down) and a crisp factory (razed to the ground). Graduating in Liverpool, Chris has since taught children and adults with varying degrees of learning disability, including autism. She is now a university lecturer, with two grown up children, and lives in Birmingham; DI Tom Mariner's 'patch'. She has published short stories, teaches creative and crime writing and is a manuscript assessor for the Crime Writers Association.
Find out more at www.chriscollettcrime.co.uk
How, why, and where...
It started, as most good stories do, with an idea that wouldn't go away. To exorcise it, I wrote it down. The scene led to more scenes, and before I knew it I had the skeleton of a story. It took me a couple of years to flesh it out and a little longer to pluck up the courage to show anyone, but eventually it became Deadly Lies; the first outing for Detective Inspector Tom Mariner.
So what was that idea? As a special needs teacher I've worked with children and adults with autism spectrum disorder, many of whom have little or no means of communication. What would happen, I wondered, if the sole witness to a serious crime was a man with ASD who had no way of disclosing what he saw?
Why Birmingham? The obvious answer is that I have now lived here for longer than I have lived anywhere else. But perhaps my conscience played a part too. Like most people who don't know the city, I was mostly disparaging of what I understood to consist entirely of spaghetti junction, the concrete jungle of the Bull Ring and row upon row of tower blocks. I very quickly learned how wrong I was. And what Birmingham has in spades, is everything a crime writer could possibly want.
