Hope to Die

But she’s pushing forward, forcing the young man back towards the wall.

‘I’m not making threats,’ he says, glancing at the old man and then back at her. ‘I don’t want your damn money –’

‘Yes you do,’ she spits, edging closer, the heavy gun slipping in her hands. ‘You all do – you vicious little shits –’

‘Now hang on,’ he says, facing up to her now, standing his ground, his anger kindling. ‘Don’t you call me that – I just came here to talk –’

But there are no more words, not ever. Everything speeds up and slows down and collides as Swann reaches for the barrel and the old woman tries to jerk it away and in a detonation of noise and heat and shock and impossibility and blood –

the gun

goes

off

Acknowledgements

Several of the Fawley books have taken a real-life crime as their springboard (for example, the Josef Fritzl case for In the Dark), and the same is true of Hope to Die. The case in question this time is that of Keli Lane, an Australian woman who was jailed for the murder of her newborn daughter Tegan, whose body has never been found. She had concealed the pregnancy from everyone around her, and the existence – and disappearance – of Tegan only emerged by accident some years later. More bafflingly still, it was neither the first nor last time she had a baby in secret: two further children were given up for adoption, one before and one after Tegan. Lane continues to assert her innocence, insisting that she handed Tegan over to her biological father, a man who has never come forward. There’s a fascinating series about the case called Exposed: The Case of Keli Lane, available on Amazon Prime, and it was also covered by the programme 60 Minutes Australia. If you watch either of them you will see why I was so drawn to the case. That said, Camilla Rowan is, of course, a fictional character, and not a portrait of the real Keli Lane, and clearly there are many elements of Camilla’s life that are entirely different from Keli’s.

So the first person I want to thank this time is Andy Chilcott, who shares my love for true-crime TV and suggested I try the 60 Minutes series. The same goes for my marvellous team of professional advisers, DI Andy Thompson, Joey Giddings, Nicholas Syfret QC and Dr Paul Zollinger-Read. I had one new specialist helping me this time round whose help has been invaluable – Sue Weedon (with thanks also to Jane Corry for the introduction). I’d also like to thank George Allan for helping me understand a bit more about the haulage industry! As ever, any mistakes or inaccuracies that remain are mine alone.

Hope to Die is the sixth in the Fawley series, and for various reasons it’s a good time to take a moment to give special and deep-felt thanks to the whole Penguin team, past and present, who have built the series from an unknown debut through two Richard and Judy picks, a Nielsen Gold bestseller award, and more than a million book sales. You have been amazing, every one of you, and I will be forever grateful: Katy Loftus, Olivia Mead, Chloe Davies, Ellie Hudson, Georgia Taylor, Sam Fanaken, Rosanna Forte, Victoria Moynes, Poppy North, Jane Gentle, Rose Poole, Lindsay Terrell and, most recently, Harriet Bourton. Also the wonderful production team headed by Emma Brown, my copy-editor, Karen Whitlock, Jessica Barnfield and the whole team at Penguin audiobooks, and everyone at Dead Good. Likewise to my fabulous audio narrators, Lee Ingleby and Emma Cunniffe.

Anna Power, Hélène Butler and Claire Morris at Johnson & Alcock have once again been exceptional – I seriously don’t know what I’d do without Anna. Thank you also to my early reader panel – Sarah Wall, Sally Rogers, Stephen Gill, Andy Weltch, Deborah Woudhuysen, Richard Croker, Elizabeth Price, Neera Gajjar, Stuart Fletcher and Trish Fletcher.

Last, but most definitely not least, I’d like to mention Chloe Sargent, who has given her name to a new member of the Fawley family. She’s named after a real person, after I donated a character name to the NSPCC for one of their charity auctions. Chloe’s mum Lynda won, and asked me to name the character after her daughter, who’s been fighting a long battle with cancer. She’s been immensely brave, coping not only with the treatment process but with lockdown, and all the extra stress and isolation the pandemic has created for all of us. She’s a very special and very brave person, and I hope she likes the character who bears her name.

THE FIRST GIRL CAME BACK …

THE NEXT MIGHT NOT BE SO LUCKY.

A girl is taken from the streets of Oxford.

But it’s unlike any abduction DI Fawley’s seen before …

Faith Appleford was attacked, a plastic bag tied over her head, taken to an isolated location … and then, by some miracle, she escaped. What’s more, when DC Erica Somer interviews Faith, she quickly becomes convinced that Faith knows who her abductor is.