by Ruth Mancini
“Hey. Do you still want to visit the Clink and the Tower of London?” Catherine asks me. “When you’ve given your statement, I mean, do you want to do something fun? Shall we get Lindsay, Zara, and Helena and go back down to the river and be tourists for the day?”
I look at her and laugh. “Maybe. I wouldn’t mind going back to Borough Market and working my way through some more of that delicious food. We can get some of that French cheese, and the bockwurst and the prosciutto. And that Catalan stew was just to die for.”
There are lots of things I want to do, in fact, after all these months of self-enforced incarceration. Phoning Oli – and Christian too – is definitely at the top of the list.
But, as for the rest, there’s no hurry. There’s next week, and the week after that, and the week after that too.
I’ve got all the time in the world.
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Acknowledgements
About Ruth Mancini
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An Invitation from the Publisher
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to my editor, Christine Lawson at Oxford Editing Services Freelance Press, and to the fantastic team at Booktrope: my book manager, Sárka-Jonae Miller; proofreader, Jennifer Gracen; and cover designer, Loretta Matson. I’d also like to thank Booktrope’s Head of Marketing, Katherine Sears, for her input and expertise, and also my friend, Max Adam, for his.
I’m truly grateful for my lovely circle of friends, many of whom helped immensely with the plot development for this book. I’d especially like to thank my dear friends Tracey Wood, Clare Solomon, and Catherine Scammell, and my mum, Marsha, for the many hours of funny, interesting, comforting, or inspiring conversations we’ve had that have helped to shape these stories. My thanks also to Mandy Braham, Patricia Marquis, Sally Morrish, and Vicki Caldicott. I feel very fortunate to have been able to pick their brains at random via text, email, phone – or, indeed, at the school gates, on our local park bench, or at the weekly roller-disco, whilst our kids ran or skated around together! A special thank you goes to Lindsay Joplin, who gave me such detailed and important feedback on the first draft of His Perfect Lies. I’m also grateful to Stephanie Mulhern for her helpful observations, and to Andrew Hobson for taking time out of his busy life to cast a lawyerly eye over the Crown Court scenes. My thanks also go to Helena Eastham for her sporting advice and expertise – not to mention the inspiration for the Helena of this novel! Once again, I am indebted to my life-long (almost!) friend Lucy Bagourd for her wonderful descriptions of the streets of Northern Paris, and for ‘ghostwriting’ the journey from Eaubonne to the Gare Du Nord. I’d driven it many years ago but couldn’t remember the detail. Lucy, as always, stepped in to help.
Finally, thanks to my boys, Mark, Jake, and Tom, for putting up with the dirty house, the empty fridge, and my late arrivals at the school gates whilst I immersed myself in His Perfect Lies. I know you had more interest in Grand Designs, The Teletubbies, and Minecraft (respectively) than in what I was writing, but you were happy for me, all the same.
About Ruth Mancini
RUTH MANCINI is a criminal defence lawyer, author and freelance writer. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two children.
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An Invitation from the Publisher
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First published as Swimming Home in 2014 by Booktrope Editions
This edition first published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Ruth Mancini, 2014
The moral right of Ruth Mancini to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781788544801
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