Demons of Cranchurch

R James H

Description

When the body of a respected member of the fictional village of Cranchurch is found abandoned in the boot of his own car, Detective Inspector Mike Strand calls upon his best friend and colleague, Dr Richard Stonefield, to assist with the murder investigation. Dr Richard Stonefield is a highly regarded forensic psychiatrist who lives and works in the village of Cranchurch and he is often called upon to assist the local police force with high-profile cases on a consultancy basis. As more murder scenes emerge and news of them spreads around the local area, fear begins to take hold as the race to capture the psychopathic serial killer becomes the sole goal of a new police taskforce. Armed only with grainy CCTV images of the person believed to be the serial killer, Mike and Richard must apply all of their skills and experience to steer the taskforce towards a successful result.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 31 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528960113
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Demons of Cranchurch
H R James
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-05-31
The Demons of Cranchurch About the Author About the Book Dedication Copyright Information Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two
About the Author
H R James is a newly published author who was born and grew up in Surrey, South East England. He is a very quiet and private person. He has a love of history, mysteries and conspiracy theories.
H R James spends most of his time writing stories and building characters. He has plans for a long and successful career as an author, many of his ideas cross a number of different genres.
About the Book
When the body of a respected member of the fictional village of Cranchurch is found abandoned in the boot of his own car, Detective Inspector Mike Strand calls upon his best friend and colleague, Dr Richard Stonefield, to assist with the murder investigation.
Dr Richard Stonefield is a highly regarded forensic psychiatrist who lives and works in the village of Cranchurch and he is often called upon to assist the local police force with high-profile cases on a consultancy basis.
As more murder scenes emerge and news of them spreads around the local area, fear begins to take hold as the race to capture the psychopathic serial killer becomes the sole goal of a new police taskforce.
Armed only with grainy CCTV images of the person believed to be the serial killer, Mike and Richard must apply all of their skills and experience to steer the taskforce towards a successful result.
Dedication
I dedicate my first novel to my mother and father, who have always supported me throughout my entire life. Without your love, support and advice, I would have never made it this far. Through the good and tough times, you have always been there for me, and I thank you with all my heart.
Copyright Information
Copyright © H R James (2019)
The right of H R James to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528912402 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528960113 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Chapter One
Dr Richard Stonefield was on his way to work at his family owned psychiatric practice in the quaint village of Cranchurch. He ran the practice with his wife Dr Amanda Stonefield, along with the help of their friend Dr James Clarke, whom they had both known since university where they shared the same psychology course.
James currently shared his week between three days at the practice and two days at the secure mental health unit at the hospital in the neighbouring town of Dillinger. Amanda was currently the head psychiatrist at the practice, as Richard was a forensic psychiatrist and he assisted the local police force with major cases whenever they needed him.
As it was a lovely mid-May morning with hardly a cloud in the clear blue sky above, Richard drove to work with the roof down on his beloved 1999 white Mercedes SL500. It was a rare day for Richard as he was taking on a new patient; Amanda and James usually did the majority of the work at the practice due to Richard being a registered consultant with the police and as he was on a retainer, he had to keep as much time free for them as possible. Richard’s best friend, Detective Inspector Mike Strand, could call on him for assistance at any time, and Richard loved to help with the police cases, even with the simpler tasks like profiling, but when he’s involved in a major case such as a high profile murder, Richard was in his element.
On this pleasant Friday morning, Richard was looking forward to meeting his new patient, whom he felt personally obliged to treat. He has known the twenty-five-year-old Dean Norris, since he was a young boy growing up in his village. Dean now lived almost opposite Richard’s home in Cranchurch. Richard’s father was a friend of Dean’s father when they were both still alive and Richard felt it is his duty to both of their fathers to do all he can to help Dean.
Dean Norris had suffered with schizophrenia for many years, but he was only officially diagnosed six years ago. Richard had a personal interest in schizophrenia, which was why he agreed to take the case on. Dean’s worried mother, Mary Norris, approached Richard a few weeks ago to ask for his help and as Richard was very well known and respected in his field, she thought he would be the best person to give her son a chance of a normal life.
When Richard arrived at the practice, he saw Amanda’s black Audi A4 parked in her usual parking space at the front of their building; she had already gone inside to open up for the new day. There was also a blue Peugeot 206 parked next to Amanda’s car which Richard knew belonged to his new patient’s sister, Sally Norris. Mary Norris had already told Richard, either her or Sally would always accompany Dean to his appointments, purely to give him some extra support due to him being uncomfortable when in professional situations.
Richard walked into the practice, past the empty reception desk, the receptionist, Penny Collier having not yet arrived. Opposite the reception, on the right hand side of the building, was the waiting area where Dean and his sister were patiently waiting for him. Behind the waiting area was the first consulting room where James Clarke worked and to the rear of that was Amanda’s consulting room. Behind the reception, on the left hand side of the building, was a small kitchen area and behind the kitchen was Richard’s consulting room to the rear of the building on the left hand side directly opposite Amanda’s consulting room.
Richard sat down at his desk to read Dean’s file to refresh his mind of his new patient’s mental state. The files had been provided to him by Dean’s mother, Mary. Almost everyone in Cranchurch knew the Norris family and it was no secret that Mary was a very caring and loving mother to both of her children. She was known to always go out of her way to help Dean in every way possible and with the help of Sally, she worked towards giving the troubled Dean the best life he could have. There was an underlying problem in both Dean’s and Sally’s lives which no one outside of their family knew about, but Mary made Richard aware of it as he would eventually find out anyway and to give him the best chance of recovery. Richard needed to get Dean talking about it as early on in their sessions as possible.
Richard knew Dean and Sally had lost their father, David Norris, when they were young and he was well known in the local area as a very successful businessman. When he died, David left his entire estate to his wife, except for two large trust funds which he had set up for Sally and Dean. It had been designed to release enough money to them each month to enable them to live very comfortably for their entire lives. Richard knew Mary had become cut off from the rest of the village after the death of her husband, as had Dean. They now only ever talk to the friends they had before David’s death, but Sally manages to maintain a relatively normal life.
Once Richard had brought himself up to date with Dean’s file, he opened the door and called him and his sister Sally in to his consulting room. As they walked in, he signalled them to sit down in the two brown leather armchairs which were in front of a glass-topped coffee table, on top of which was a box of tissues, a pen and some writing paper for the use of his patients. On the other side of the table was another identical brown leather armchair where Richard always sits to watch and listen to his patients during the sessions.
When Sally and Dean sat down, Richard walked over to his desk, on the other side of the room, to pick up his writing pad and Dean’s file which he may need throughout the session. He then walked to his chair and sat down to begin the first session with his new patient. Sally began by introducing herself and her extremely anxious brother Dean, who looked like he was about to sink and disappear into the chair at any moment.
As a psychiatrist, Richard was extremely good at reading body language; he also had a personal interest in micro expressions. He was by no means an expert and was quite new to it, but Richard spent a lot of his spare time reading books by some of the leading experts on the subject.
As Richard sat in his chair looking at Dean to try and gain an initial read on him, he could see Dean was rather restless and his anxiety was growing by the minute, which was to be expected on the first appointment with a new psychiatrist with whom he had not yet built up any level of trust. Dean and Richard knew each other, but only as neighbours. It was completely different when meeting on a professional basis and Dean knew he would need to speak about things which no one outside of his own family had any knowledge of.
Richard could see the worry was significantly adding to Dean’s stress le