WATTYS WINNER 2020
Two interconnected murders, 64 years apart. One woman's search for truth and identity.
Readers' comments: 'a masterpiece', 'impeccably written', 'amazing', 'superbly crafted page-turner', 'hauntingly beautiful', 'tremendous plot a...
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Dudley, a milk-and-honey Labrador, is a cadaver dog specifically trained to sniff out humand remains. His handler, Jennifer, suffers from an unusual phobia which has isolated her socially. When together they uncover the corpse of a missing child, Jennifer begins to fell a deep, personal connection to the case. Dissatisfied by the direction of the official police investigation, she resolves to unravel the mystery herself. In doing so, she must first unravel herself...
Genre: mystery/suspense Target readership: adults Posting schedule: twice-weekly (Sundays and Thursdays) from Spetember to December 2020 Length: 70,000 words (approximately 275 standard novel pages)
Extract:
"Dudley!" I called into the darkness. "Time to turn back around boy. We're done for today."
We'd almost reached the end of the woods by this point, another rectangle which could be crossed off from Kelso's map. Nothing, nulla, zilch.
I swayed the flashlight in a jerky arch, waited for Dudley's tongue-dangling form to come bounding into vision. There was sign of him however.
"Dudley!" I called again. "Here boy!"
It was then that the barking came, somewhere a hundred or so metres off to my right. Not his usual playful response, but instead a focused, constant noise - a quick-fire volley of woofs like rounds from a machine gun. His 'found something' bark.
My heart quickened along with my step, the flashlight boring through the darkness. My free hand deflected off the moist barks of the trees, pushed branches from my path.
"Stay there boy! You just stay right there."
The barking was incessant, grew louder with each step. At last the thick maze of tree trunks relented and there he was, framed in the soft-edged beam of the torchlight in the centre of a small clearing. His tail swooshed manically, snout directed at the ground.
Stooping myself down beside him, I slanted the flashlight to the earth, squinted in close examination. Nothing - just dirt, twigs and damp leaves.
A shallow grave.
The lifeless body of Meghan Shaw had been tossed into a shallow grave.
"Well done Dudley! Good work boy!"
Lifting myself back to my feet, I extracted his favourite pull toy from my coat pocket, invited him to rear up on his hind legs in play. To the dogs themselves it was all little more than a game: victory merited a prize. It was only after our strange celebratory dance was over that I finally pressed the call button on the shoulder radio, informed Kelso of the tragic news
