The Whole Truth

Previously … in the Fawley files

This is the fifth book in the Fawley series, so if this is the first one you’ve picked up you might like a quick summary of the key members of the team, so you can hit the ground running. Starting, of course, with the man himself …

Name

DI Adam Fawley

Age

46

Married?

Yes, to Alex, 44. She’s a lawyer working in Oxford.

Children?

The Fawleys’ ten-year-old

son Jake took his own life two years ago. They were devastated and thought they’d never be able to have another child. But now Alex is pregnant again …

Personality

Introspective, observant and intelligent, outwardly resilient, inwardly less so. He doesn’t care that Alex earns more than he does, or that she’s taller than him in high heels. He’s good at lateral thinking and bad at office politics.

He’s compassionate and fair-minded, but it’s not all positives: he can be impatient and he has a short temper. He was brought up in a dreary North London suburb, and he’s adopted, though he only discovered that by accident – to this day his parents have never discussed it.

He doesn’t watch crime on

TV

(he has enough of it during the day); he listens to Oasis and Bach and Roxy Music (Alex once

told him he looks like Bryan Ferry, to which he replied ‘I wish’); if he had a pet it would be a cat (but he’s never owned one); his favourite wine is Merlot and his favourite food is Spanish (though he eats far too much pizza); and surprise, surprise, his favourite colour is blue.

Name

DS Chris Gislingham

(recently promoted from

DC

)

Age

42

Married?

Yes, to Janet

Children?

Billy, nearly 2

Personality

Chirpy, good-humoured, hard-working, decent. And a serious Chelsea fan.

‘Always described as “sturdy” and “solid”, and not just because he’s getting a bit chunky round the middle. Every CID team needs a Gislingham, and if you were drowning, he’s the one you’d want on the other end of the rope.’

Name

DC Gareth Quinn

(recently demoted from

DS

, after getting involved with a suspect)

Age

36

Married?

No chance

Personality

Cocky, ambitious, good-looking. Fawley describes him as ‘sharp suit and blunt razor’.

‘Quinn took to DS like a dog to water – zero hesitation, maximum splash.’

Name

DC Verity Everett

Age

33

Married?

No. But has a cat (Hector)

Personality

Easy-going personally, ruthless professionally. Lacks the confidence she should have in her own abilities (as

Fawley is well aware).

‘She may look like Miss Marple must have done at thirty-five, but she’s every bit as relentless. Or as Gis always puts it, Ev was definitely a bloodhound in a previous life.’

Name

DC Erica Somer

Age

29

Married?

No. But she’s just started seeing a

DI

in Hampshire Police, Giles Saumarez.

Personality

English graduate and worked as a teacher before joining the police

(in the first book she’s still a

PC

). Her surname is an anagram of ‘Morse’ – my nod to Oxford’s greatest detective!

‘I watch men underestimating her because she’s attractive and in a uniform, and I watch her registering that fact and using it to her advantage.’

Name

DC Andrew Baxter

Age

38

Married?

Yes, but no children

Personality

Stolid but dependable. Good with computers so often gets

lumbered with that sort of stuff.

‘A solid man in a suit that’s a bit too small for him. The buttons on his shirt gape slightly. Balding, a little out of breath. Halfway to high blood pressure. He looks forty but he’s probably at least five years younger.’

Name

DC Anthony Asante

Age

32

Married?

No

Personality

A fast-track graduate entrant to the police, he’s new to the team, having recently

transferred from the Met. His parents are very wealthy, and his father is a former Ghanaian diplomat.

Fawley describes him as

‘Diligent, intelligent, technically excellent. He does what he’s asked and he takes the initiative when he should. And yet there’s something about him I just can’t get a handle on. Every time I think I have him worked out, he manages to wrong-foot me.’

The other members of the team are Alan Challow, Nina Mukerjee and Clive Conway, in the CSI team, Colin Boddie, the pathologist, and Bryan Gow, the profiler.