I like reading dedications in books and imaging the story behind them. Absolution has a ripper - To Jessie Ramsay, born 1904. You can tell a Sheffield lass, You just cannot tell her much.
The book has two main sections, so I thought a little grab from each:
Anna, Glasgow 1984
White.
Nothing but white.
No sense. No awareness. Only white.
Nothing.
Then breathing.
Rhythmic breathing.
Nothing more than the ebb and flow of life.
She slept.
Alan, Glasgow 2006
Elizabeth Jane Fulton had not been beautiful in life. Death did her no favours either.
1984 - It looked like a simple job. That was why they gave it to him. Guarding a woman - nameless and almost faceless after a savage acid attack - at a Glasgow hospital, PC Alan McAlpine has no idea that this simple job will haunt his career and change his live forever.
2006 - Two decades later, Alan steps into Partickhill police station and back in time. Now a celebrated Detective Chief Inspector, McAlpine has been drafted in to lead the hunt for a man the press are calling the 'Crucifixion Killer'. Two women are already dead, their mutilated bodies displayed with arms outstretched.