Product Description

It is 1985: a man runs for his life - exhausted, wounded, hunted remorselessly by a woman assassin known only as The Head Hunter. At the end, he has just enough energy to spit in her face. 2001: sixteen-year-old Kerry Lumsdon runs across the same terrain. She runs to win and she runs to forget. When a headless body is found in the wastelands of the Seahills Estate, Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt is called in to investigate. Kerry and Lorraine, different ages and from different worlds, come together when Claire Lumsdon, Kerry's sister, is violently kidnapped - the fourth in a series of abductions of young girls. Headstrong, wilful and convinced the police can't help, Kerry sets out on a frantic search of her own. But her hunt takes her to a world she never knew existed: a violent underworld; a sixteen year old murder; and, finally, to secrets about her own past which her mother hoped she'd never have to face. And all the time, the clock is ticking for Claire.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32756 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 512 pages

From the Publisher
AN UNPUTDOWNABLE DEBUT IN THE BESTSELLING TRADITION OF MARTINA COLE

From the Back Cover
1985: a man runs for his life –wounded, exhausted, hunted remorselessly by a woman assassin known only as The Headhunter. 2001: sixteen-year-old Kerry Lumsdon runs across the same terrain. She runs to win and she runs to forget.

When a headless body is found in the wastelands of the Seahills Estate, Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt is called in to investigate. But then a more urgent case lands on her desk when Kerry’s sister, Claire, is violently kidnapped.

Headstrong, willful, and wary of the police, Kerry sets out on a frantic search for Claire. But her hunt takes her to a violent underworld, a sixteen-year-old murder and, finally, to secrets about her own past her mother hoped she’d never have to face.

And all the time, for Claire, the clock is ticking …

‘A convincing portrayal of a violent underworld’ Independent

‘Fast-paced’ Telegraph Magazine

‘A rattling good plot … it doesn’t stop running until the final page by which time you will be breathless’ Newcastle Upon Tyne Journal

About the Author
Sheila Quigley started work at 15 as a presser in Hepworths, a tailoring factory. She married at 18 and had three daughters: Dawn, Janine and Diane and a younger son, Michael. Recently divorced she now has eight grandchildren, six boys and two girls, and every Saturday and Sunday can be found at a football match for the under tens and under fifteens. Sheila has lived on the Homelands Estate (at present with her son and two dogs) at Houghton-le-Spring near Sunderland for 30 years.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
When I read the blurb, I thought this is my kind of book. Sadly I was disappointed. While the idea for the plotline was good, it did not live up to my expectations. I did not feel the fear I ought to have felt in Claire, the young girl who was kidnapped, or even in her family. Also, I would like to have seen more differentiation of character, particularly in their dialogue. The police inspector's language was little different from that of the criminals she was hunting or from the young people and the adults around them.
But what really put me off this book was the vast amnount of bad language. I accept that it was an integral part of the characters' lifestyle, but I'm sure the point would have been made more clearly by its more limited use.

The story is too unbeleivable and cliched.
I bought this book after reading the hype, unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations. It is written in the style of Martina Cole with a lot more swearing but not in the same class I'm afraid. The story is so unbelievable in places I could not take it seriously, it is littered with coincidences that just would not happen in real life. Reading this book was like watching a bad B movie filled with actors who cannot act!! I do not recommend it.

Run for Home
How strange that vrogerson from London, Jenny Fox from Lincolnshire and jason bolt from england all have the same problems with their space bars and spellcheckers. Must be something to do with fans of pulp crime novels.

I have to say that, having heard about this book on the radio, I was very disappointed when I started reading it. I thought the plot and the characters were formulaic and clichéd and, I confess, I didn't finish reading it.

For me, there's a hint of surrealism in the publishers' comparison with Martina Cole and Catherine Cookson. Now there's a combination I never expected to see.

Generally, I rely on the blurb and critics when I'm deciding whether to buy a book. Normally, if I didn't enjoy a story, I wouldn't offer such a negative criticism. I would simply notch it up to bad luck. But in this case I was seduced by the radio hype and now I'm asking myself - is this a touch of the emperor's new clothes?

Or can someone explain to me exactly why I should finish reading this book?