'Vivid and exciting' The Times
WINNER OF THE PRIX DU MASQUE
She was found hanging in a dingy London bedsit with a blood orange in
her mouth. Diane Heybridge, a young woman without a past or much of a
future, has captured in death the compassion denied her in life.
For the prosecution, this seeming suicide is nothing more than a bungled
killing and a disgusted public looks to Court 2 of the Old Bailey for
justice. Her callous, jilted partner Brent Stainsby stands accused of
her murder and he's turned to the maverick legal team William Benson and
Tess de Vere to defend him.
However, as the trial unfolds it soon becomes clear that there is far
more to Diane Heybridge than meets the eye. She wasn't the weak and
downtrodden victim now being presented to the jury. She was capable of a
sophisticated form of vengeance. By the same token, Brent Stainsby isn't
who he seems to be either. He's hiding a motive for murder unknown to
the police and may well be playing a deadly game of poker with the
judicial process. What began as a simple trial rapidly turns into a
complex search for the truth beyond the confines of the courtroom...
