Spite Your Face

SPITE YOUR FACE An absolutely gripping crime thriller full of twists EMMY ELLIS Detective Carol Wren Mysteries Book 1 Originally published as Biding Their Time Revised edition 2023 Joffe Books, London www.joffebooks.com First published in Great Britain in 2022 as Biding Their Time © Emmy Ellis 2022, 2023 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect supersedes this. The right of Emmy Ellis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. We love to hear from our readers! Please email any feedback you have to: [email protected] Cover art by Nebojša Zorić ISBN: 978-1-80405-887-9 CONTENTS Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Love Free Bestselling Fiction? The Joffe Books Story A Selection of Books You May Enjoy Glossary of English Usage for US Readers Love Free Bestselling Fiction? Join our mailing list and get a FREE Kindle book from a bestselling author every week! Click here to join our mailing list and also get a free box set of short stories! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @joffebooks Prologue Thank you for choosing this book. Join our mailing list and get FREE Kindle books from our bestselling authors every week! CLICK HERE TO GET MORE LOVELY BOOK DEALS 21 Larch Lane — Scudderton She cowered in his presence, always did, afraid, wishing her mother hadn’t gone off and left her. Dad hadn’t been right since, and he drank a lot, raised his hand a Chapter One 59 Wexford Close — Scudderton It could be considered weird, staring through windows at people, but Martine did it just the same. The family didn’t know she stood between their elder hedges most nights, drawing the leafy branches across so only her head popped out. If they did, they’d have surely phoned the police, at the very least coming out to shoo her away,