Blog Tour: A Sneaky Peek from Whatever It Takes by Heaton Wilson

Yaaay! Chuffed to bits to be on the Whatever It Takes blog tour. Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for the invite. I love offering sneaky peeks  as it's a great chance for the reader to get a feel for the novel and I'm convinced that once you've read this sneaky peek you'll be clicking the To Buy Link. But first ...

Whatever It Takes Blurb

DCI Jane Birchfield is facing a series of personal challenges: a rocky relationship with her partner, her mum hardly talks to her; and her boss and mentor is critically ill, which means she is having to cover his post as well as her own. Then she has to take charge of the toughest of murder investigations.

Jamie Castleton is found dead, seemingly frozen in position at a computer in a grubby internet cafe in the Manchester suburb of Ashbridge. Enquiries reveal he was a self employed tech consultant and a computer expert, so what was he doing in there?

The more Jane and her team dig under the surface, the more the evidence points to one of Manchester's biggest companies, Greaves, and its super-wealthy boss, Graeme Hargreaves. This leads Jane into a sordid underworld, and a surprise twist in the investigation forces her to face up to an event in her own past, that she has kept buried for 25 years.

Slowly, but surely, the net tightens around the suspects, but can she stay objective, and can she keep herself, her team, and her relationship, together, and bring the killer to justice? For Jane it has become a personal crusade, but in this race against time there is far more at stake than she ever imagined.

Purchase Link - https://linktr.ee/heaton

Extract from Whatever It Takes, by Heaton Wilson

 Scene setting:  Jamie Castleton has been found dead, frozen in position at a computer in an internet café near Manchester.  He was found by the manager, Paolo Gonzales. DS George Creasey has been tasked with checking his computer records to establish what Jamie – a self employed IT consultant - was doing there...

 ‘So, can you track back to recover what that lad was up to?’

Paolo Gonzales’ enormous frame was a tight fit in the shabby desk chair, in his cramped office on the first floor of the Pretty Cool Café. The back of his shirt was stained dark with sweat, and no wonder – the warm air heater on the wall was groaning with the effort.

The equally large, and now claustrophobic, DS George Creasey removed his jacket and slung it over the back of his chair, sipping water as Gonzales squinted at a screenful of foreign language.

‘What’s that you’re looking at, Mr Gonzales?’

‘Is code, URLs, all that, yes.’

‘From the deceased’s computer?’

‘No, no. From server. Have to find unique address.’

George grunted and looked at his watch. This was taking forever. And could he even trust that the information he would get would be accurate? What if that lad had been here every night looking at porn or paedophile sites or some other illicit stuff? In that case, the proprietor of this ‘respectable business’ - as Gonzales described it – would be doing everything he could to remove the evidence... wouldn’t he?

George made a note to get one of Phil’s IT guys in to take a peek. Mark Manning would know what to do.

Gonzales scratched the dark stubble on his cheek and leaned back. ‘Okay sir. Have tracked down. Will print off screen so you keep.’

‘Thank you, Mr Gonzales. Before you do that, do you mind if I take a picture of that on my phone?’

‘No, no secret here. Please …'

He wheeled out of the way, then turned to check the paper tray in the printer, while George fumbled to get the screen image focussed. He took an extra shot, just in case.

‘So, what are we looking at here?’

‘Web site addresses, email messages... browse history, sir.’

‘Anything interesting or unusual about it?’

‘No sir. Jamie was a good boy. In here a lot. Very quiet, like I said. Some of them make lots of noise and try to do bad things -’

‘Like what?’

‘Dark web, drug supply, all things. I have controls here to tell me, so I throw them out. Never throw Jamie out. Very good boy.’

‘Dark web. I’ve heard of it, but …'

‘Clever. Dangerous place. Need very good computer skill to go there. Many criminals use it. No way to track, see. All anonymous.’

‘OK, thanks, we’ll need to look into that. But no evidence here that Jamie was going there, or trying to go there? No sign of any dodgy activity?’

Gonzales rasped out a laugh. ‘Jamie a nice guy, but clever, too. He would know not to try here. So, what can I say?’

‘So, tell me, in simple language if you can, what was he doing when he came in this evening?’

Gonzales pressed a couple of keys and the printer sprang into life. ‘OK, you want coffee first?’

George tried very hard not to betray his real feelings about the vending machine coffee on offer, having discreetly spat a mouthful into the pedal bin about ten minutes ago.

‘That’s very kind of you, but no thanks. Don’t let me stop you though.’

 Then, towards the end of the chapter, forensic investigator Phil is wracking his brains to find a cause of death, as he talks into his voice recorder …

 ‘No signs of violence. No signs of self-defence. No defects in the vital organs. We’ve ruled out suffocation, choking, heart failure. The only thing we have is that needle mark. But no evidence of any nasty substances in the blood test... Though the guys at region might find something with their equipment. What could cause a healthy fit young man to apparently just die instantly?’

Author Bio 

I have been a newspaper journalist, a postman, a public relations officer, a consultant, an actor, a director, a playwright. And I have always kept writing.

I always felt I could write a novel. And I did! The first book in my crime fiction series featuring DCI Jane Birchfield, Every Reason, came out in 2016.  Whatever It Takes was published in 2021; and the third book (which follows on where Whatever It Takes ends) is nearing completion.

I'm from Manchester but now live on the Isle of Wight, where the sea is never far away. It's the perfect place to be creative, and to walk the dogs.

Social Media Links –  @kkevvin

http://facebook.com/heatonwilson

Check out the rest of the tour