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The Girls Beneath
Ross Armstrong
‘Quirky, offbeat, stylish and original. I loved it.’ Mick HerronTom Mondrian is the last person you want on your case. And the only one who can solve it, in this quirky psychological thriller.Tom Mondrian is watching his life ebb away directing traffic as a PCSO, until a bullet to the brain changes everything. With a new unusual perspective, including an inability to recognise faces and absolutely no filter between what he thinks and what he says, Tom’s career is suddenly shifting gear.Tom’s new condition gives him an advantage over other police officers, allowing him to notice details that they can’t see. Now, with his new insight and unwavering determination, Tom is intent on saving three missing girls, before more start to disappear…PRAISE FOR THE GIRLS BENEATH‘Absolutely lovedHead Case. Couldn’t put it down. Tragic, funny and frightening. Ross Armstrong has written another cracker’ Chris Whitaker, CWA New Blood Dagger winning author of Tall Oaks‘Ross Armstrong has created a brilliant hero in Tom, and this novel is an enjoyable addition to the psychological thriller genre. Five Stars’ HeatThe Girls Beneath was originally published as Head Case.
PRAISE FOR ROSS ARMSTRONG (#ulink_c3a045fd-f1e9-5e29-bda4-e6e6cfcd7644)
‘Addictive and eerie, you’ll finish the book wanting to chat about it’ – Closer Magazine, Must Read
‘A twisted homage to Hitchcock set in a recognisably post-Brexit broken Britain. Tense, fast-moving and with an increasingly unreliable narrator, The Watcher has all the hallmarks of a winner.’ – Martyn Waites
‘Ross Armstrong will feed your appetite for suspense’ – Evening Standard
‘Unreliable narrator + Rear Window-esque plot = sure-fire hit’ – The Sun
‘Brilliantly written… this psychological thriller is definitely one that will keep you up to the early hours. Five Stars.’ – Heat, Book of the Week
‘A dark, unsettling page turner’ – Claire Douglas, author of Local Girl Missing.
‘Creepy and compelling’ – Debbie Howells author of The Bones of You
‘The Watcher is an intense, unsettling read… one that had me feeling like I needed to keep checking over my shoulder as I read.; – Lisa Hall, author of Between You and Me
ROSS ARMSTRONG is an actor and writer based in North London. He studied English Literature at Warwick University and acting at RADA. As a stage and screen actor he has performed in the West End, Broadway and in theatres across the UK, where he has worked opposite actors such as Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Kim Cattrall and Maxine Peake. Ross’ debut title The Watcher was a top twenty bestseller and has been longlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger.
The Girls Beneath
Copyright (#u4a583913-dc1f-509d-b3f4-4bad9de5bebd)
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018
Copyright © Ross Armstrong 2018
Ross Armstrong asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
First edition published with the title Head Case in Great Britain in 2018
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © January 2018 ISBN: 9780008182267
Version: 2018-10-29
For all those who
think differently
‘Hush little baby
Hush quite a lot
Bad babies get rabies
And have to be shot’
CONTENTS
Cover (#u28abf1a0-eff2-563b-94f2-41b4ae013df5)
Praise (#ulink_e72ed24b-22a5-53fa-bf45-7ed9ee2e210a)
About the Author (#u57b49263-d95e-5cb9-9a33-8d8dd21ce506)
Title Page (#u39fbbfd6-baf2-58dd-bcf0-f526321340c0)
Copyright (#ulink_c7600f71-113f-542f-b665-79d28e987505)
Dedication (#u1f56bcc9-683b-59c2-a80e-9d9eb6df5f6a)
Epigraph (#u5881f70e-cf5e-517f-9c53-3f9daa5bd425)
Chapter 1 (#ulink_3cf2f4de-d5de-5f69-8a81-e3471a6e6724)
Chapter 2 (#ulink_50e4a10e-fec6-5de8-afc3-7cc4bf9463a0)
Chapter 3 (#ulink_9f716d39-a97b-59a0-8a8f-683e5306827b)
Chapter 4 (#ulink_ab6e3a24-e97f-534f-9c75-2b545bc3e864)
Chapter 5 (#ulink_78e7753b-97d7-5e0f-96b5-50f036cd1267)
Chapter 6 (#ulink_dde4576a-6ffa-54ec-94e3-f558c76acc0f)
Chapter 7 (#ulink_da07a303-0b2d-5c02-a3b6-0987b8776a83)
Chapter 8 (#ulink_126f1d66-a5eb-56c6-b29c-dc500b647813)
Chapter 9 (#ulink_fd1ea10a-8bc9-56eb-b2f5-861ebfb3fe99)
Documented Telephone Conversation #1 (#ulink_74b156bd-ca16-536a-be3e-98ba7e506d72)
Chapter 10 (#ulink_75acfdc1-2c75-50e1-951f-d7d4b703c14a)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Documented Telephone Conversation #2 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Documented Memory Project #1 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Documented Memory Project #2: Tape (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Documented Memory Project #3 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Documented Telephone Conversation #3 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
I remember, a note, she passed… Documented Memory Project #4 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 38 (#litres_trial_promo)
Afters (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
7 days till it comes. (#litres_trial_promo)
1 (#ulink_8fe3e3cc-47ba-5e0c-abba-a8ddb11fb751)
‘Dee. Dah dah dah dee dah, dah dah, dee dah…’
It was a year of miracles. The year I learned how to walk and talk again, the year I met Emre Bartu and the year the girls went missing.
But first came December.
The weekend before my first week as a Police Community Support Officer began. The last week in which my brain’s valleys, ridges, streets and avenues remained in perfect working order.
Back when I thought a lot differently. Before I became ‘Better Than Normal’ as Ryans says. He says that because in some ways I definitely am. Better than you, I mean. No offence.
It’s a Christmas gift that will lie under my brain stem, wrapped in the folds of my cerebellum, romantically lit by my angular and supramarginal gyrus, for the rest of my grateful life.
So let’s go back to the last week when the inside of my skull was anatomically ‘correct’ and aesthetically as it had been since the day I was born.
When my brain functioned as it does for the ‘normals’. The others. The ones devoid of irregularity or uniqueness. No offence.
Before the fractures. Before the accident.
If it was an accident.
