Whatever It Takes

by Heaton Wilson

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.

Young 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? His mother is convinced he was up to no good, and the cafe manager is soon under suspicion for trying to hide Jamie’s browser history.

But the more Jane and her increasingly enthusiastic 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.

Author news

My first crime fiction book, Every Reason, is available on Amazon.

The second, Whatever It Takes, will be published by Matador later this year.

I have launched a podcast in which I read some of the short stories I have written... You can find it here ....
kevhwilson.podbean.com I am now working with an illustrator with a view to publishing new short stories as a collection.

I have also had several plays published by Smithscripts.

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About the Author

Heaton Wilson

Born in Stalybridge, near Manchester, I trained as a journalist in defiance of my parents, who wanted me to join the Civil Service. It was the best decision I ever made, because it not only gave me the confidence to deal with people (many of them difficult!), but it also enabled me to earn a living from doing what I have always enjoyed - writing.

I worked in Stockport, Bolton, and Bury, before moving to Herefordshire; at which point I swapped sides and moved into public relations, working for Southampton City Council, then Harrow, and also in Barnet.

My big career change came when I organised my own redundancy and set myself up as a consultant, living on the Isle of Wight, where we used to come for family holidays.

Since then, I have gradually eased out of communications consultancy, and ended up founding my own theatre company - Origins Theatre; writing our own plays, and often appearing in them!

The writing bug has never left me, and after graduating with a BA Hons in Literature through the Open University, I began to explore writing fiction, including short stories.

I wrote my first crime fictions novel about three years ago. It's called Every Reason, and at one point was in the top 100 on Amazon Kindle.

My new book - Whatever It Takes - is the second in the series.

And I am now researching the third.

When I'm not writing, I love working outdoors in our hilly garden near the sea, and walking the dogs.

It's a tough life, but someone's got to do it!