The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die: The first book in an addictive crime series that will have you gripped. Marnie Riches
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The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die
Marnie Riches
AVON
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2015
Copyright © Marnie Riches 2015
Cover design © Lizzie Gardner
Cover images © NAS CRETIVES and r.martens/ Shutterstock
Marnie Riches asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © April 2015 ISBN: 9780008138332
Version: 2018-01-24
To Mum, who teaches me strength and perseverance.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter 1: Amsterdam, 20 December
Chapter 2: 21 December
Chapter 3: South East London
Chapter 4: Amsterdam, 23 December
Chapter 5: Amsterdam, 24 December
Chapter 6: 25 December
Chapter 7: 2 January
Chapter 8: 3 January
Chapter 9: Later
Chapter 10: 4 January
Chapter 11: South East London
Chapter 12: Amsterdam, 10 January
Chapter 13: Later
Chapter 14: 12 January
Chapter 15: Later
Chapter 16: Later still
Chapter 17: South East London
Chapter 18: Amsterdam, 16 January
Chapter 19: 17 January
Chapter 20: Heidelberg, later
Chapter 21: Stena Hollandica ferry, North Sea
Chapter 22: Amsterdam, 18 January
Chapter 23: Remand Wing, Women’s Prison, UK
Chapter 24: Amsterdam, 25 January
Chapter 25: Later
Chapter 26: Cambridge, 26 January
Chapter 27: Later
Chapter 28: Amsterdam, 27 January
Chapter 29: 28 January
Chapter 30: Somewhere in the Netherlands
Chapter 31: Later
Chapter 32: 30,000ft above the North Sea, 29 January
Chapter 33: Amsterdam, 2 February
Chapter 34: Dominican Republic, 27 February
Chapter 35: Groningen, 13 March
Postscript
By the Same Author
About the Publisher
Novels are not developed in a petri-dish, and I’m glad they’re not. Writing is perhaps the most fun I could ever have with my clothes on. But it’s arduous graft too. In fact, the path to publication can be so fraught with travails and disappointment, at times, that this author would not have travelled far down it without the help of the following people:
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my family for their love, unflagging moral support and encouragement, so thanks to Christian, Natalie and Adam, always.
For his loyalty, patience and friendship, I would like to thank my partner-in-crime – special agent, Caspian Dennis. Had he not championed my writing so valiantly, The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die would still be just another file on my laptop.
Thanks are due, of course, to my editor, Katy Loftus and the team at Maze/HarperCollins for their energy and professionalism in publishing and marketing the series, enabling me to push George and van den Bergen out into the big, wide world, where they belong.
Two people whose help was invaluable during the research phase for this novel are Sebastian Tredinnick and my bez, Louise Owen. What they don’t know about Heidelberg ain’t worth knowing. Cheers, guys!
Huge thanks are due to these fine people:
To fellow writers, Steph Williams and Wendy Storer for listening to my almost constant fretting, griping and melodramatic nonsense. They kept telling me I could do this, so I did. To Ann Giles, aka Bookwitch, who persuaded me I have something to offer the crime genre. And to poet, Martin de Mello for his sage-like pronouncements on the other bits of my life.
The idea for The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die took shape during a dinner I had with author, Melvin Burgess, where I realised I could draw inspiration from my own youthful experiences and turn them into the sort of thriller I’d always aspired to write. Ta, Melvin!
Author, Anthony McGowan persuaded me to keep going with the manuscript, even in the face of a difficult birth, so thanks, Tony. The literary stretch marks and knackered pelvic floor