Published by Canelo (22 October 2018)
Available in ebook
352 pages
| About the Book |
The case was closed. Until people started dying… The unputdownable first DI Ridpath crime thriller from bestseller MJ Lee
A killer in total control. A detective on the edge. A mystery that HAS to be solved.
DI Thomas Ridpath was on the up in the Manchester CID: a promising young detective whose first case involved capturing a notorious serial killer. But ten years later he’s recovering from a serious illness and on the brink of being forced out of the police. Then people start dying: tortured, murdered, in an uncanny echo of Ridpath’s first case.
As the investigation intensifies, old bodies go missing, records can’t be found and the murder count grows. Caught in a turf war between the police and the coroner’s office, digging up skeletons some would rather forget, Ridpath is caught in a race against time: a race to save his career, his marriage… And lives.
When a detective goes missing everything is on the line. Can Ridpath close the case and save his colleague?
Where is Where the Truth Lies?
by M J Lee
The first novel in the DI Thomas Ridpath series is set in my hometown, Manchester. For me it is a wonderful setting for a contemporary crime story, featuring a young detective coming to terms with his own mortality and with a strong moral compass.
Why?
Firstly, there are some amazing locations. Manchester was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, growing rapidly throughout the nineteenth century when it earned the sobri-quet, Cottonpolis. Although the cotton industry no longer survives, it left behind a wealth of locations that were intrinsic to the growth of the industry.
The first murder was committed next to the Bridgewater Canal. This was built in 1759 by the third Duke of Bridgewater to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester to provide power for the new cotton mills It’s not used industrially any more but rather pro-vides facilities for leisure boating and fishing. Hence the location of the crime at the won-derfully named Stretford Marina.
The River Mersey is another location for the crimes in Where the Truth Lies. The river was the reason Manchester grew in the first place. It still wends its way slowly through the southern suburbs of the city, finally reaching the sea 35 miles away at Liverpool. The sandbank I describe in Northenden actually exists in the middle of the river, bordered on the upstream side by a green bridge and a weir.
Greater Manchester Police HQ has now moved from its old location in Old Trafford to a a modern, purpose- built building in the Northern district off the road to Oldham. It was past here in 1819 that crowds walked to the city to see Orator Hunt and were met by the swords of the Militia. This became known as Peterloo, depicted in Mike Leigh’s( born in Salford) latest film.
Finally, the suburb of Poynton exists. It is now a rather tony place to live, yet only 40 years it was a centre of mining and railway work. The mines closed in the 1980s leaving behind old workshops and one of the darkest forests you’ll ever have the misfortune to walk through. It is here that the final denouement of Where the Truth Lies happens. But you’ll have to read the book to find out what goes on.
Lastly, you won’t be able to find Stockfield anywhere on the map. I created the location of the coroner’s court as an amalgam of three or four Manchester districts. There has to be some licence for the authorial invention, even in Manchester.
I hope you enjoy reading Where the Truth Lies and, if you are in Manchester, take a look at some of the locations I feature.
Thanks for reading my book.
My thanks to Ellie of Canelo for the invitation to take part in the tour and to M J Lee for the guest post.
If you’ve been tempted, Where the Truth Lies is currently available to download on Amazon UK for just 99p
| About the Author |
M J Lee has spent most of his adult life writing in one form or another. As a university researcher in history, he wrote pages of notes on reams of obscure topics. As a social worker with Vietnamese refugees, he wrote memoranda. And, as the creative director of an advertising agency, he has written print and press ads, TV commercials, short films and innumerable backs of cornflake packets and hotel websites.
He has spent 25 years of his life working outside the north of England, in London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai, winning advertising awards from Cannes, One Show, D&AD, New York and the United Nations.
While working in Shanghai, he loved walking through the old quarters of that amazing city, developing the idea behind a series of crime novels featuring Inspector Pyotr Danilov, set in the 1920s.
When he’s not writing, he splits his time between the UK and Asia, taking pleasure in playing with his daughter, practising downhill ironing, single-handedly solving the problem of the French wine lake, and wishing he were George Clooney.
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Oh, I’m intrigued! I’ve never read anything set in Manchester!
It sounds interesting doesn’t it