Ghost Girl (55 page)
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I was given much support during the writing of
Ghost Girl
.
Once again I’d like to thank Detective Superintendent Stephen Cassidy, recently retired from the Metropolitan Police. Steve responded in detail to my queries both in person and in writing. Thanks also to Helen Samuel of the Metropolitan Police for her considered advice; and to Frank Pacifico, Operational Trainer for the London Underground: Frank’s observations were helpful and illuminating. Any mistakes or errors are mine.
I would like to thank Theresa Meekings for showing me around the building that inspired Mallingswood House and for telling me about its history. Theresa evoked ghosts that morning.
My thanks to Sue Robertson, Course Leader and Senior Lecturer on the MA in Architectural and Urban Studies at the University of Brighton for a reading list and more than one fascinating conversation about cities, buildings and architectural models. And to Professor Jenny Bourne Taylor of the University of Sussex for letting me tap her considerable knowledge on Victorian cities. To Liz Kinning, Facilities Manager at St Peter and St James’s Hospice, who gave me hard-core information about deep cleaning and sanitizers that helped me to understand Stella’s love of all things sterile. Thanks to Jane Goldberger and Ralph Baber of The Drinking Fountain Association for the spreadsheet detailing cattle troughs in London. I have taken fictional liberties with the data.
I have also taken topographical liberties and redrawn the boundaries of Hammersmith, increasing the jurisdiction of the Hammersmith Division.
The story owes much to my ‘first reader’ Melanie Lockett, whose acute perceptions and observations were invaluable. As well as this she helped make the writing possible by doing more than her fair share of the domestics.
Arts Council funding (Grants for the Arts) enabled me to complete a draft of
Ghost Girl
. This invaluable grant for artists was critical to me. I am grateful to John Prebble and Rob Grundy of the Arts Council for their guidance. For their advice and endorsement of my application, thanks are due to creative industries consultant and good friend, Lisa Holloway, Myriad Editions MD, Candida Lacey, and the novelist Martine McDonagh, who generously shared with me her own experience of applying for a grant.
Many played their part in listening to ideas, providing writing space or simply spurring me on. My warm thanks go to: Caro Bailey, Sandra Baker, Melissa Benn, Diana Burski, Juliet Eve, June Goodwin, Marcus Goodwin, Kay and Nigel Heather, Lisa Holloway, Greg Mosse, Domenica de Rosa, Bernice Sorensen, Alysoun Tomkins and Agnes Wheeler.
My agents Capel and Land are right there. My heartfelt gratitude to Philippa Brewster for her staunch support and, as ever, valuable feedback, and to Georgina Capel, Rachel Conway and Romilly Must.
Laura Palmer is a wonderful editor, sensitive and perceptive. Thanks to all at Head of Zeus, in particular Nic Cheetham, Kaz Harrison, Mathilda Imlah, Clémence Jacquinet, Madeleine O’Shea and of course Becci Sharpe. Many thanks also to copy editor Richenda Todd and to proofreader Jane Robertson.
It is a year since her father’s death, but Stella Darnell has not moved on. She visits his house every day and cleans it, leaving it spotless as if he might return.
Stella’s father was Detective Chief Superintendent at Hammersmith police station, and now she has discovered what looks like an unsolved case in his darkroom: a folder of unlabelled photographs of deserted streets. But why did Terry Darnell – a stickler for order – never file them at the station or report them to his colleagues?
The oldest photograph dates back to 1966. To a day when Mary Thornton, just ten years old, is taking her little brother home from school in time for tea. That afternoon, as the Moors Murderers are sent to prison for life, Mary witnesses something that will haunt her forever.
As Stella inches closer to the truth, the events of that day begin to haunt her too...
Ghost Girl
is an intelligent, absorbing crime novel from the bestselling author of
The Detective’s Daughter
.
‘Lesley Thomson is a class above.’
Ian Rankin
‘A wonderful, absorbing, intelligent detective story,
The Detective’s Daughter
takes you on a journey through time, loss and memory. The characters – particularly Stella – will stay with you for a very long time.’
Elly Griffiths
‘A thoughtful, well-observed story about families and relationships and what happens to both when a tragedy occurs. It reminded me of Kate Atkinson.’
Scott Pack
‘This book has a clever mystery plot – but its excellence is in the characters, all credible and memorable, and in its setting in a real West London street, exactly described.’
Literary Review
‘A gripping, haunting novel about loss and reconciliation, driven by a simple but clever plot.’
Sunday Times
‘The strength of the writing and the author’s brilliant evocation of how a child’s mind works combine to terrifying effect.
A novel one cannot forget.’
Shots
‘Skilfully evokes the era and the slow-moving quality of childhood summers, suggesting the menace lurking just beyond... A study of memory and guilt with several twists.’
Guardian
‘This emotionally charged thriller grips from the first paragraph, and a nail-biting level of suspense is maintained throughout.A great novel.’
She Magazine
THE DETECTIVE’S DAUGHTER
Stella Darnell must clean. She wipes surfaces, pokes her cloth into the intricate carving of an oak table, whisks a duster over a ceiling rose. She keeps the world in order. Her watch is set three minutes fast for punctuality – a tip she learned from her father – and the couch in her sterile apartment is wrapped in protective plastic, though she never has guests. In her mid-forties, six foot tall, Stella is pleasant but firm, helpful but brutally pragmatic. The detective’s daughter has time for neither frivolities nor fools.
Jack Harmon is everything Stella deplores. Fanciful and unpredictable, his decisions rely on random signs. He will follow a paper bag blown along a pavement by the wind; a number on a train will dictate his day. Jack is the best cleaner Stella has ever known. Jack sees that Stella makes sense of his intuitive ponderings. Together, as unofficial detectives, these two misfits solve mysteries that have left the police confounded.
It was the murder that shocked the nation. Thirty years ago Kate Rokesmith went walking by the river with her young son. She never came home.
For three decades her case file has lain, unsolved, in the corner of an attic. Until Stella Darnell, daughter of Chief Superintendent Darnell, starts to clear out her father’s house after his death…
The Detective’s Daughter
is available
here
.
It is a year since her father’s death, but Stella Darnell has not moved on. She visits his house every day and cleans it, leaving it spotless as if he might return.
Stella’s father was Detective Chief Superintendent at Hammersmith police station, and now she has discovered what looks like an unsolved case in his darkroom: a folder of unlabelled photographs of deserted streets. But why did Terry Darnell – a stickler for order – never file them at the station or report them to his colleagues?
The oldest photograph dates back to 1966. To a day when Mary Thornton, just ten years old, is taking her little brother home from school in time for tea. That afternoon, as the Moors Murderers are sent to prison for life, Mary witnesses something that will haunt her forever.
As Stella inches closer to the truth, the events of that day begin to haunt her too...
Lesley Thomson photo © Emily Andersen
LESLEY THOMSON was born in 1958 and grew up in London. She went to Holland Park Comprehensive and the Universities of Brighton and Sussex.
Her first novel,
A Kind of Vanishing
, won the People’s Book Prize in 2010. Her second novel,
The Detective’s Daughter
, was published in 2013 and sold over 300,000 copies.
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