Book 1 in the Hardback Justice Series.
Someone’s reading between the lines — and killing between the chapters.
George Pendry was once a bestselling crime novelist — back when bookshops had queues and his liver hadn’t staged a quiet rebellion. Now, at sixty-two, he runs a crumbling second-hand bookshop on the faded English coast, drinking more than he sells and living among stories far more alive than his own.
But when a body turns up behind A Likely Story, clutching a rare copy of one of George’s long-forgotten novels — murdered in the exact way he once wrote on page 243 — fiction suddenly becomes fatal.
As the killings continue, each mimicking scenes from George’s back catalogue, he finds himself dragged into a twisted narrative written by someone else… someone who’s read everything he’s ever published — and more he never meant anyone to see.
With the police sceptical, a teenage assistant too enthusiastic, and an ex-wife who still edits his life, George must confront his past chapters to survive the final one.
Because this killer isn’t just inspired by George’s stories. They’re writing the next one.