New Book Burden of Proof

 

My latest book, Burden of Proof is now available to download from Amazon.

Burden of Proof
DI Hedley is hated by his boss DCI Roberts, but nobody knows why. Sergeant Fiona Connor asks Hedley late one evening. He tells her that is stems from a case many years ago when he was a young DC and Roberts his sergeant. They fell out over a case where a woman came home from work to find her husband dead, with his throat slashed. It was obviously suicide. Wasn’t it?

This is a stand-alone short story in the Elversford Mysteries, and comes with two bonus crime stories:-

Scissorella
Andrea has escaped her past and is building her future but her past isn’t so easily forgotten.

My Father’s Child
Emory’s dark and secret boyhood haunts him mentally and physically.

“My Father’s Child” is a particularly dark short story which is both a crime story and a supernatural story.  A shorter version of Scissorella appeared in an anthology “43 L plates” edited by Dan Stamp.  I have revised the story to read in the present tense, which I feels works very well for this story.

 

Inspirations

I thought I’d have a rummage for some of the inspiration photos I used to mentally build Flitbury Marshes. Alas, the quality isn’t that great for many of them because they were pictorial notes, not for exhibition. I will take some more as the opportunity arises, but here are some. This is on the River Blackwater, which is tidal. People have got stuck in the mud before now, including the Inspector at Maldon nick a few years ago. He’d gone to rescue someone and needed pulling out himself.

 

I hope this works OK. I’m still finding my way round WordPress.

Reviews for Death in Flitbury Marshes

I’ve had two excellent five star reviews for Death in Flitbury Marshes on Amazon. It’s a relief to know that people love my work. Although the landscape is fictional, it was inspired by the local landscape round Maldon. Flitbury Island and Flitbury Marshes don’t exist, but they so easily could. I will rummage around my hard drive and see if I have any photographs of the landscape that I found so inspiring.

 

 

Welcome to my Blog

Welcome to my blog. Previously I have blogged as Evelynspottygardenblog and as Linda Gruchy’s Essex Murder Mysteries, but recent technical hitches means I have moved my blog to here, and might as well combine them. I am still learning with this blog so it may be some time before my blog settles down, especially as I am a technophobe.

I have had short stories published in women’s magazines under the name Linda Gruchy, and Linda Priestley, and non-fiction under the name Linda Priestley (though sometimes my name is misspelled Priestly). Because of the success of Death in Spigg’s Wood, my first gritty crime e-book novel, I have decided to write crime under the name Linda Gruchy, and lighter-hearted Romance etc as Linda M Priestley. As you can see from the images on the side bars I have two crime novels and an anthology of short stories out as Linda Gruchy, and a novella as Linda M Priestley. I hope this won’t confuse people, but I thought it best to do this so I avoid disappointing someone looking for a gritty crime novel if they find it’s Romance, and not shocking the socks off a reader looking for a sweet Romance if they download my gritty crime.