Feature with #extract: Basic Element by Wendy Cartmell @wendycartmell @BrookCottageBks

Delighted to return to more regular posting – barring anything unexpected! – starting this weekend with a couple of tours for Brook Cottage Books.  Today I’m featuring a recently published crime thriller, Basic Element by Wendy Cartmell. Published by Costa Press, this is the second in the Crane and Anderson series, but can be read as a standalone. It’s currently available for just 99p from Amazon in the UK, $1.26 in the US.

He’s not a killer. He’s ordinary. It’s just that he has an addiction.

The papers call him The Choker. Crane and Anderson call him a sadomasochist. But whatever his name is, the Major Crimes team have to find him. And fast. Because time is running out. It won’t be long before he kills again.

Here’s an extract to tempt you…

Boy

You’d be surprised how still I can sit. I’m doing it now. My bottom is on the floor, my knees are pulled up and my arms wrapped around them. I’m watching a spider. A big, black, fat one. He’s just behind that rock. He came out once, but I frightened him by moving, so he ran away and I had to start all over again. I won’t make that mistake again. I can wait for ages and ages.

Here he comes. I can see one black leg poking out. Here comes another, and another. A spider has eight legs. I learned that at school. I like school, it’s interesting. I’m not like some of the other children. They mess about, don’t concentrate, don’t try their hardest. I always try my hardest. Daddy makes sure of that. Daddy helped me to learn to sit still. He said I was a terrible wriggler, so he tied me to a chair until I stopped. He doesn’t have to tie me down anymore. I can sit still for ages, until he tells me I can get down. It makes me feel funny inside. I quite like that feeling. So I do as I’m told.

I can see the spider’s body now. He’s inching his way out from his hiding place, his legs reaching out ahead of him, making sure there’s nothing in his way. And there isn’t. Not really. Only my little hand and if I keep it still enough he’ll crawl right onto it.
The spider is climbing onto my hand now. One leg, two. He’s an old slow coach but I can wait. Nearly there…

My fingers curl over his body, trapping him inside my hand. Got him!

I hold the spider’s body between my finger and thumb, leaving his legs dangling in the air. Now I can count them. The first leg comes off easily, making him wriggle even more. He isn’t as good as being still as I am. As I pull off each leg I sing quietly to myself…

Incy wincy spider…

(Looks rather good, eh?!)

About the author

Wendy Cartmell is the author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller STEPS TO HEAVEN. She lives on the Costa del Sol with three mad dogs and her even madder husband. She inherited her love of reading from her parents and discovered her ability to weave a good story at Reading University, which she attended at the tender age of 40.


After several failed attempts at writing in various genres, Sgt Major Crane, a military policeman, knocked on her proverbial door and the rest, as they say, is history. All 8 Crane crime thrillers are published by Endeavour Press, as well as the Emma Harrison mystery trilogy, set in Reading Young Offenders Institution.

Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendy.e.cartmell https://www.facebook.com/sgtmajorcrane/
Twitter: @wendycartmell
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5276123.Wendy_Cartmell
LinkedIn: https://es.linkedin.com/in/wendy-cartmell-bb52b142
Blog: https://wendycartmell.wordpress.com/
Website: http://wendycartmell.webs.com/