Hangman's Wood

When a university student is viciously attacked and left for dead, newly promoted D.I. FIONA BRIGHTMAN finds herself on the trail of a couple of young thugs embarked on a spree of brutal assaults. As the violence escalates into murder and now a young woman is missing, can Brightman find the woman and stop the killers before they strike again?

When Jake Summers, a university student, is viciously attacked and left for dead, newly promoted D.I. Fiona Brightman finds herself on the trail of a couple of young thugs embarked on a spree of brutal assaults. But soon the violence escalates and first a child and then a middle-aged woman are murdered in Hangman's Wood, with a fourth person missing: young and attractive Natalie Gower. With time running out, can Brightman, dealing with a tricky marriage and still grieving from the death of her four year old daughter, stop the killers and find Natalie before they strike again? Brightman's search for the killers take her as far afield from her home county of Suffolk to the Scottish borders and the Kent coast, at one point endangering her own life during a frantic chase through the notorious Hangman's Wood.

Although Paula has been writing short stories since the age of 10, she has only recently turned to crime. This is the first outing for Detective Inspector Fiona Brightman, but there are two others on the way. Paula is now retired from teaching sociology, particularly focussing on crime and deviance, and currently lives in Essex with her partner.