by Helen Smith
Emily looked at him and thought that this might be the offer that would help her, finally, to forget Jessie, to let go and move on from her old life. ‘Thank you,’ said Emily. ‘But no.’
The flashing blue lights and the protesting ‘not ME, not ME, not ME’ sound of the sirens announced that the police had arrived and were parking up on the road outside. Chris left Emily, with a somewhat reluctant final squeeze of her hand, and went off to deal with them.
‘I’ll walk you back to your flat, dear,’ said Dr. Muriel to Emily. ‘If you don’t mind stopping by the kitchen first so I can pick up my trolley.’ As they walked together back to the house, Dr. Muriel said, ‘I don’t suppose we shall ever discover whether Midori was poisoned – but for what it’s worth, I very much doubt it. That girl was over-excited, and wearing very constricting clothing, and she bolted her food from what you told me, and she drank that punch down straight. It sounds like what my mother would have called a giddy spell – she was a classic candidate. Other than that, Emily, is there any aspect of this case left unresolved?’
‘Well, I did wonder,’ said Emily, ‘whether Joe really liked my cheesy potato bake that I brought.’
‘I don’t know about that m’dear,’ said Dr. Muriel. ‘But if it’s pertinent to the case, I’m sure it will come out in court.’
o0o0o0o0o
Helen Smith’s Books
Thank you for reading Three Sisters. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you liked Three Sisters, you’re going to love the Emily Castles mysteries. The series can be read in any order, but most people go on to read Showstoppers next. There’s blackmail, murder and intrigue when Emily helps out at the end-of-term show at the local stage school.
Showstoppers Excerpt
‘Hello!’ Emily called as she went into her flat on Friday evening, before the front door was fully closed behind her. She lived alone. Calling out was a deterrent strategy in case she had been followed home by an opportunistic thief. The thief was to assume, from hearing her cheery hello, that she lived with a tough, dangerous man or men who wouldn’t stand for Emily being attacked on her doorstep or pushed inside and attacked there. It was a strategy that she no longer thought about or questioned, she just did it. It was one of many little survival tactics she had adopted since coming to live in London – but still, when she called out hello and got no answer, it always seemed, somehow, as if the silence was mocking her for living alone.
She picked up her mail from the doormat: a phone bill, a begging letter from a charity, a voucher for free delivery from a supermarket, and a letter addressed to her neighbour, Victoria. It wasn’t unusual for Emily to get letters delivered to her that were meant for other residents of the street, as though the postmen at the local sorting office were conspiring to bring the community into closer contact with each other. She took the letter across the street to where Victoria lived in a three-storey red brick Edwardian terraced house with her husband and three sons. Emily Castles was a bright, clever young woman with a natural curiosity. When she walked anywhere she walked quickly, usually, and she looked up at her surroundings as if she expected to see something interesting at any minute. But today hadn’t been a good day, and she looked down at the chewing gum-grey pavements without really seeing them, scuttling towards Victoria’s house to avoid being seen as much as to avoid seeing anything. But Victoria opened the door to greet her before Emily could get away. Victoria was very slim, and she had naturally curly brown hair that fell to her shoulders in fat spirals. She was in her early-to-mid forties, Emily thought. Victoria rarely wore make-up unless it was a special occasion because she had lovely skin and even features, and she looked perfectly fine without it. She was bare-faced now, as usual, though Emily couldn’t help noticing she looked paler than usual, even a little drawn.
‘Letter for you,’ said Emily.
‘Oh God, no!’ said Victoria. ‘Oh my God!’ She put one hand to the base of her throat and reached for the door behind her with the other, as if planning on whipping it off its hinges and using it as a shield. Her reaction was unexpected to say the least.
See Showstoppers in the Kindle store.
“Helen Smith has created a great little cozy series with the charming Emily Castles.” Criminal Element
Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Information
Alison Wonderland and Being Light are offbeat comedies featuring the adventures of private detective Alison Temple, her best friend Taron, and Mrs Fitzgerald, Alison's boss at Fitzgerald's Bureau of Investigation, an all-female detective agency in Brixton, London.
“Smith is gin-and-tonic funny.” Booklist
The Miracle Inspector
A dystopian novel set in England in the near future, The Miracle Inspector follows the story of a young married couple, Lucas and Angela, and their disastrous attempt to escape from London.
“A beautifully written, and almost unbearably sad, depiction of a society's downfall.” All-Consuming Books
About the Author
Helen Smith is a British novelist who lives in London. Her books have reached number one on Amazon's bestseller lists in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany, and her work has been optioned by the BBC.
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Table of Contents
THREE SISTERS
Helen Smith’s Books
About the Author
Copyright © Helen Smith 2011
First published in 2011 by Tyger Books
The right of Helen Smith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 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 the copyright owner.