by Ed James
‘Right.’
‘Was it about Becky?’
‘We were having lunch. It all just hit me.’
‘Me not being able to have kids?’
‘The stress we’ve been under. My promotion, your promotion. Bain. Methven. Everything that’s been happening.’
‘But mainly Becky?’
Cullen rubbed his damp eyes. ‘I couldn’t deal with it.’
‘You’re dealing with it, Scott. Better than most.’
‘Maybe I should go back to my counselling.’
‘Maybe.’
Cullen reached over to kiss her. ‘Look, I’m sorry.’
‘What about?’
‘I’ve been such an insensitive wanker. Treating you like the enemy. Pushing you away.’
She wiped the misted-up windscreen and started the car. ‘We just need to talk more. Deal?’
Cullen grabbed her hand and clutched it tight. ‘Deal.’
SCOTT CULLEN WILL RETURN IN
“HEROES & VILLAINS”
(Scott Cullen Book 8)
Available late 2016
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Afterword
A monster. There’s no other way to put it.
Sincere thanks for buying this book, I hope the reading was as enjoyable as clicking Buy on Amazon.
Thanks this time go to Kitty for the cover, the alpha reading, the harsh criticism and the brilliant copy editing, especially as it was an emergency; to Ginty and Rhona for the incisive alpha reading; Victoria Pepe for the brutal structural and line editing; and Len Wanner for stepping in for the emergency proofing and doing such a grand job in tight timescales.
This was one of the most personal books I’ve written. IT projects, with their corruption and ineptitude, paid my bills for many years. Now it’s time to write about them. I got a lot out of my system with that. Where there’s money, there’s usually the stench of corruption and people wasting their time on politics and games instead of just doing stuff. Of course, it’s all fictional, even if based on real experiences.
Anyway, Cullen will be back late next year in HEROES & VILLAINS. It’s shaping up to be pretty interesting, in my head at least. You’ve probably noticed, but I’m slowing down production of Cullens as he’s taken up most of my time over the last eighteen months. I want to devote energies to DS Vicky Dodds and DI Simon Fenchurch, among other projects. That said, I’ve got an idea for a Sharon McNeill short novel, so we’ll see how that goes. And HEROES is already eating at my synapses.
One final note, if you could find time to leave a review where you bought this, I'd really appreciate it — reviews really help indie authors like myself.
-- Ed James
East Lothian, August 2015
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OTHER BOOKS BY ED JAMES
SCOTT CULLEN MYSTERIES SERIES
1GHOST IN THE MACHINE
2DEVIL IN THE DETAIL
3FIRE IN THE BLOOD
4DYED IN THE WOOL
5BOTTLENECK
6WINDCHILL
7COWBOYS & INDIANS
8HEROES & VILLAINS (late 2016)
DS VICKY DODDS SERIES
1SNARED
DI SIMON FENCHURCH SERIES
1THE HOPE THAT KILLS (early 2016)
SUPERNATURE SERIES
Writing as Edwin James
1SHOT THROUGH THE HEART
2JUST WALKING THE DEAD (a novella)
Meet DS Vicky Dodds in
“SNARED”
OUT NOW
Vicky Dodds—single mother, commitment-phobe, Detective Sergeant—is adding Dundee, Scotland to the Tartan Noir map.
When a dog breeder in and around Dundee disappears, DS Dodds and her team are tasked with finding out who is behind the attacks.
But as the crimes escalate, and the attacker’s message becomes clearer, Vicky begins to question where her own sympathies lie.
From the acclaimed author of the Scott Cullen series, Snared is an unyielding police procedural that fearlessly examines the uncomfortable grey areas between right and wrong, and between “us” and “them.”
http://mybook.to/EJSnared
About Ed James
About Ed James
Ed James is the author of “Snared”, starring Dundee-based Detective Vicky Dodds, and the self-published Scott Cullen series of Scottish police procedurals — the first book, “Ghost in the Machine”, has been downloaded over 400,000 times, hitting both the UK and US top fives on Amazon.
In order to write full-time, Ed gave up a lucrative career in IT project management, where he filled his weekly commute to London by writing on planes, trains, and automobiles, managing to complete three full-length novels in just seven months. He lives in East Lothian, Scotland.