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Back Dog Rose Dirt Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
  15. 13
  16. 14
  17. 15
  18. 16
  19. 17
  20. 18
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  33. 31
  34. 32
  35. 33
  36. 34
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  40. 38
  41. 39
  42. 40
  43. 41
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  46. 44
  47. 45
  48. 46
  49. 47
  50. Acknowledgements
  51. Also by Jen Williams
  52. About the Publisher

Colleen Evans had been faced with a terrible decision – the worst decision, perhaps, that anyone could have to make – and, ultimately, she hadn’t been able to live with it. Certainly not when the Bickerstaff sisters had come sniffing around her door, not when the time had come for the dark harvest of Fiddler’s Wood. Such a decision had broken her, twisted her into something sharp and cold, and Heather wondered if Lyle, sitting in his prison cell, deserved to know that: if he deserved to know how it had broken their mother, to give him to the monsters. She thought, all in all, that it was a mercy he hadn’t earned. However small a mercy it was.

‘I think I’m more like you, actually.’ She said it forcefully, but the wind picked up her words and snatched them out to sea. ‘I really do think that. I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner, Mum.’ A seagull cried overhead, a clear and hopeful sound. ‘I’m sorry.’

Heather scattered the dog-rose petals where she stood and walked away from the cliff’s edge.

Acknowledgements

This book essentially owes its entire existence to my brilliant agent and friend, Juliet Mushens. We have long shared an interest in true crime, swapping stories and Wikipedia links, and one day, when I joked about passing off all my dodgy internet activity as book research, she fixed her eye upon me – via WhatsApp – and said, ‘Well, why don’t you write a thriller, Sennifer?’ Thank you, Juliet, for being the kick up the bum I needed, and of course for being one of my dearest, wisest friends.

So, Dog Rose Dirt was a new genre for me, and never has a single book taught me so much. I’ve been lucky enough to have an extraordinary team of excellent minds to lead me through it and very kindly teach me all the things I needed to learn. Huge thanks to Natasha Bardon at HarperFiction, who saw through to the bones of this book immediately and made it work, and to Jack Renninson, who has kept everything on track and offered thoughtful advice at each stage. Enormous gratitude also to the team at Crooked Lane Books, who made me feel so welcome and championed the book with such enthusiasm – Faith Black Ross, Melissa Rechter, and Madeline Rathle, you all rock. Many thanks also to Jenny Bent, another agent who has had my back at every step.