The Operator (Bruce and Bennett Crime Thriller 2) (43 page)
Read The Operator (Bruce and Bennett Crime Thriller 2) Online
Authors: Valerie Laws
Erica didn’t want to believe her empowering
therapy had really helped to make Tessa the Operator; it was being the victim,
storing up humiliation and pain, suddenly given the chance to be the one with
power, that had triggered that, though perhaps it had been in her all along.
But she was left to wonder how she, trained and experienced in understanding
people and all their quirks, could have been so wrong about her patient. She
was such a good judge of people.
Wasn’t she?
<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>
Grateful thanks are due to Ann Cleeves for invaluable
advice and support at an earlier stage and for a fabulous cover quote. Thank
you also to authors Alex Marwood and Chris Longmuir for pre-publication reading
and reviews, to my daughter Lydia Laws for feedback and support, and to my friends
of the Authors Electric blogging collective for advice on all things Amazon. Thank
you also to Sheila Wakefield of Red Squirrel Press, publisher of my crime
fiction and recent poetry in paperback. And finally love and thanks to Dr Allan
Huggins, my long-suffering boyfriend, for computer- and image- related advice
and assistance, and for listening to me ranting and despairing as well as
sharing my joys.
THE OPERATOR is set on the North East coast of
England, mainly in fictionalised versions of Whitley Bay and Tynemouth, and in
Newcastle upon Tyne.
THE ROTTING
SPOT (Bruce and Bennett Mystery 1)
‘A darkly
intriguing debut’ Val McDermid
LYDIA
BENNET’S BLOG (the real story of Pride & Prejudice)
ALL THAT
LIVES (poetry of sex, death and pathology)
For
Valerie’s books published in paperback see
www.valerielaws.co.uk
Valerie Laws is a Northumbrian crime and comedy
novelist, poet, playwright and sci-art specialist. Her recent work, in new
crime novel THE OPERATOR and latest poetry collection ALL THAT LIVES, is
informed by funded Residencies at a London Pathology Museum, at Kings College
London Medical School, and at Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing and
Health, researching the science of dying with neuroscientists and pathologists.
Her twelve published books (four ebooks, eleven paperback) include crime
fiction, poetry collections, drama, best-selling language books and comedy. She
has written twelve commissioned plays for stage and BBC radio. Many prizes and
awards include: Wellcome Trust Arts Award, twice prizewinner in National Poetry
competition, two Northern Writers Awards. She invents new forms of kinetic poetry,
devising science-themed poetry installations and commissions including world-infamous
Quantum Sheep,
an Arts Council-funded project spray-painting poetry onto
live sheep. She featured in BBC2 TV's
Why Poetry Matters
with Griff Rhys
Jones, with a quantum haiku on inflatable beach balls, later performed live at
Royal Festival Hall London. Kinetic poetry AV installations/films such as
Slicing
The Brain
have featured in public exhibitions across Europe and UK, and her
embedded haiku
Window of Art
computer-controlled illuminated
installation is in St Thomas Hospital London. She has had many other writers’ residencies,
including in Egypt in a 5* hotel, and currently at Dilston Physic Garden in
Northumberland. She performs her work live and in the media worldwide.