Simon Lelic: A Thousand Cuts

Lucia faced Harry. Her lips found the corner of his mouth. Before Harry could react, Lucia was moving away, across the office and back towards the stairwell. When she reached it, she turned, and could not help but catch sight again of Walter. He was watching her with an expression of resentment she had only ever seen before through the grille of a cell door. Lucia, though, felt none back.

Thanks and love to my wife, Sarah, above all, and to my family: Mum, Dad, Katja, Matt, Galina, Ekaterina, Sue, Les, Kate, Nij, and of course to our budding football team. Also to Sandra Higgison, Richard Marsh, Jason Schofield, Kirsty Langton, Christian Francis, John Lewis, Darryl Hobden and Anna South for their support, guidance and advice. Any errors appear in spite of their help, and are my responsibility alone. Thank you, finally, to all at Viking, Picador, the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency and Felicity Poryan, in particular to Kathryn Court, Maria Rejt, Zoe Pagnamenta and Caroline Wood.

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Copyright © Simon Lelic, 2010 All rights reserved

Published in Great Britain as Rupture by Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan

Publisher’s Note

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lelic, Simon.

[Rupture]

A thousand cuts : a novel / Simon Lelic.

p. cm.

First published as Rupture by Picador, London, 2010.

eISBN : 978-1-101-18996-2

Investigation—Fiction. 4. Women detectives—England—London—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6112.E48R87 2010

823’.92—dc22

2009041431

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