12 AUGUST 2019
Jack laid a fresh bunch of flowers on Dolly’s grave. The card, written in Jack’s handwriting, read, ‘Love from Angela x.’ He then poured two glasses of whisky from his hip flask and placed one glass on top of the small stone wedge of the grave next to Dolly. Jack downed his whisky.
‘Here’s to your first grandkid, Dad.’
Back at the car, Maggie leant against the bonnet, waiting. As Jack got close with the second glass of whisky in his hand, she grabbed his wrist and inhaled the deep peaty vapours. She closed her eyes and imagined the taste.
‘Four months and counting,’ she sighed.
Jack moved his hand across her stomach and leant in to kiss her cold mouth.
‘Let’s get you home before you freeze,’ Jack whispered, his lips still on hers. ‘I’ll finish painting the nursery and you order the takeaway. Mum likes chow mein.’
*
‘A live-in babysitter! Heaven!’
The decision to move from a flat to a house with an annexe for Penny wasn’t hard after Jack’s surprise announcement that he’d won £250,000 on an impulsive, one-off lottery ticket. Maggie was pleased to be moving somewhere they could finally call home, but of course she didn’t believe Jack’s story about where the money had come from for a second, and when the time was right, she would make him tell her the truth. She liked her new husband with his new-found sense of his place in the world, but she wasn’t about to let lies become part of their relationship.
Jack Warr was no longer lost. He finally knew where he came from. With the best of Harry and the best of Charlie flowing through his veins – nature and nurture – he was now a man who effortlessly straddled two worlds: crime and punishment.
For most people, those worlds would be polar opposites, but Jack knew better – they complemented each other, like light and shade. And Jack knew he had to live in both in order to finally be the man he was always destined to be.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the staff at my publisher, Bonnier Books UK, particularly Kate Parkin and, of course, Bill Massey for his edits.
In Australia and New Zealand, the team at Allen and Unwin. It is an absolute pleasure working with them.
In South Africa, the staff at Jonathan Ball. I hope to see you all soon.
In Ireland, Simon Hess and Declan Heeney, for all their hard work in selling and publicising my books. I always love my trips to Dublin.
Cass and Ann Sutherland for their continued assistance in getting the police and forensic procedures correct.
Neil Granville for his help in researching the fire.
Everyone at La Plante Global: Nigel Stoneman, Tory Macdonald and Veronica Goldstein.
A huge thank you to my readers, who always support me and give me such great encouragement. It makes me want to continue writing.
Also thank you to Debbie Owen in working with me to hopefully bring my vision of Buried to the screen.
About the Authors
Lynda La Plante was born in Liverpool. She trained for the stage at RADA and worked with the National Theatre and RDC before becoming a television actress. She then turned to writing and made her breakthrough with the phenomenally successful TV series Widows. She has written over thirty international novels, all of which have been bestsellers, and is the creator of the Anna Travis, Lorraine Page and the Trial and Retribution series. Her original script for the much-acclaimed Prime Suspect won awards from BAFTA, Emmy, British Broadcasting and Royal Television Society, as well as the 1993 Edgar Allan Poe Award.
Lynda is one of only three screenwriters to have been made an honorary fellow of the British Film Institute and was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Best Writer Award in 2000. In 2008, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to Literature, Drama and Charity.
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Dear Reader,
Thank you very much for picking up Buried, the first book in my brand-new series, and one I’m very excited about. Jack Warr is a character who has really taken hold of my imagination and I’ve loved writing about him. He is a complex character: charming, slightly lost and searching for answers, and the road that he finds himself on was a fascinating one to explore. I also loved dipping my toe back into the world of Widows, but in a contemporary setting and with a new cast of characters, as well as a few old favourites. I hope you enjoyed reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.
My fans will know that I am a stickler for accuracy in my forensics and police research, which is out of respect for those that give me such valuable advice. The eagle-eyed amongst my readers may have noticed that there is a bit of a discrepancy when it comes to the stolen bank notes in Buried. The Bank of England regularly take notes out of circulation, which in this case would mean that the ill-gotten gains from the train robbery would have no value in the present day. I decided, therefore, to use my license as a novelist and have the £20 and £50 notes as legal tender, even though in reality they would not have been.
If you enjoyed Buried, then please do look out for the second book to feature Jack Warr, which will be published in 2021. And in the meantime, this Autumn sees the publication of the next book in my Jane Tennison series, Blunt Force, in which Jane finds herself reunited with old friend, Spencer Gibbs, and the two must navigate the salacious world of showbusiness to solve the brutal murder of a famous theatrical agent.
The first five novels in the series, Tennison, Hidden Killers, Good Friday, Murder Mile and The Dirty Dozen are all available in paperback, ebook and audio now. I’ve been so pleased by the response I’ve had from the many readers who have been curious about the beginnings of Jane’s police career. It’s been great fun for me to explore how she became the woman we know in middle and later life from the Prime Suspect series.
If you would like more information on what I’m working on, about the new series or about the Jane Tennison thriller series, you can visit www.bit.ly/LyndaLaPlanteClub where you can join My Readers’ Club. It only takes a few moments to sign up, there are no catches or costs and new members will automatically receive an exclusive message from me. Zaffre will keep your data private and confidential, and it will never be passed on to a third party. We won’t spam you with loads of emails, just get in touch now and again with news about my books, and you can unsubscribe any time you want. And if you would like to get involved in a wider conversation about my books, please do review Buried on Amazon, on GoodReads, on any other e-store, on your own blog and social media accounts, or talk about it with friends, family or reader groups! Sharing your thoughts helps other readers, and I always enjoy hearing about what people experience from my writing.
With many thanks again for reading Buried, and I hope you’ll return for the second in the series.
With my very best wishes,
Lynda
THE
INSPIRATION
FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
OUT NOW
JANE TENNISON
from the very beginning
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Zaffre
This ebook edition published in 2020 by
ZAFFRE
80-81 Wimpole St, London, W1G 9RE
Copyright © Lynda La Plante, 2020
Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com
Author photograph © Gemma Day
The moral right of Lynda La Plante to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-83877-033-4
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-83877-034-1
This ebook was produced by IDSUK (Data Connection) Ltd
Zaffre is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk
Table of Contents
Title Page
Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
12 August 2019
Acknowledgements
About the Authors
Lynda La Plante Readers
Letter from Author
Scene of the Crime
The Inspiration
Jane Tennison
Copyright
Buried - DC Jack Warr Series 01 (2020) Page 32