Stranglehold

DISCOVER A PAGE-TURNING MURDER MYSTERY SET IN THE IDYLLIC COTSWOLD HILLS.

Praise for J. M.

‘Begins with quiet observation before pouncing to murderous effect.’ Sunday Express

‘A chilling story that never flags from start to finish.’ Bolton Evening News

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Lambert and Hook have Tommy Clinton on the ropes. They’re questioning him for the assault and murder of nineteen-year-old Julie Salmon. Then DI Rushton interrupts. “There’s been another one,” he says. “Not more than a couple of hours ago.”

Behind a canvas tent ribboned with police tape, the body of Harriet Brown lies like a marble figure on a tomb. She had been a week away from her twenty-first birthday when she was murdered.

The arrangement of her hands shocks even Lambert, who is used to much bloodier deaths. Whoever killed Harriet tied an elastic band around her wrists, holding them together as though in prayer.

But it’s not Harriet’s hands that occupy Lambert’s thoughts. It’s the hands of the killer he sees when he falls asleep. Hands that composed Harriet’s body into a mocking parody of the good religious death. Hands that have killed twice, and will kill again, unless they are arrested.

This gripping police procedural is perfect for fans of Betty Rowlands, Agatha Christie, L. J. Ross, Joy Ellis, M.C. Beaton, or Faith Martin.

READERS LOVE STRANGLEHOLD :

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A tense and well written crime novel.’ Damaskcat

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Good writing, skilled character development, and diverse plots.’ NLB

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A very enjoyable book to read.’ Kindle Customer

THE DETECTIVES
Entering middle age, Superintendent John Lambert has a lifetime of experience under his belt. He may be less spirited than he was in his youth. And more reluctant to leave the peaceful bliss of the garden or the golf course. But his policeman’s instincts are sharp and unshakeable.

Detective Sergeant Bert Hook is five years Lambert’s junior, but his ponderous gait and demeanour make him seem the older of the two. His village bobby exterior conceals a shrewd and active brain.

THE SETTING
Much of the Cotswolds is made up of villages busy with their own concerns. They’re connected by hawthorn-edged lanes and separated by the River Severn, which traces a serpentine route between farmlands, cricket fields, and ancient cathedral cities. There are tracts where the river scarcely moves, passing between rich, green valleys. And all manner of things get trapped here by the low-hanging boughs of willows.

In the city of Gloucester, both the river and the people move faster. It's not a city like London, or even Oxford. But a busy place, where people don’t have much time to study those who pass them in the streets. Not so good for disposing of a body, but perfect for dissolving into a crowd.

Lambert and Hook Series
Book 1: Murder at the Nineteenth
Book 2: Making a Killing
Book 3: Dead on Course
Book 4: Bring Forth Your Dead
Book 5: The Fox in the Forest
Book 6: Stranglehold
Book 7: Watermarked
Book 8: Death of a Nobody
Book 9: Accident by Design
Book 10: Body Politic
Book 11: Girl Gone Missing
Book 12: Malice Aforethought
Book 13: An Unsuitable Death
Book 14: An Academic Death
Book 15: Death on the Eleventh Hole