The Water Clock

PENGUIN BOOKS

THE WATER CLOCK

Praise for Jim Kelly

‘A significant new talent’ Sunday Times

‘The sense of place is terrific: the fens really brood. Dryden, the central character, is satisfyingly complicated… a good atmospheric read’ Observer

‘A sparkling star newly risen in the crime fiction firmament’ Colin Dexter

‘Kelly is clearly a name to watch… a compelling read’ Crime Time

‘Beautifully written… The climax is chilling. Sometimes a book takes up residence inside my head and just won’t leave. The Water Clock did just that’ Val McDermid

‘An atmospheric, intriguing mystery, with a tense denoument’ Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph

‘Excellent no-frills thriller with real bit. 4 stars’ FHM

‘A story that continuously quickens the pulse… makes every nerve tingle. The suspense here is tight and controlled and each character is made to count in a story that engulfs you while it unravels’ Punch

‘Kelly’s evocation of the bleak and watery landscapes, provide a powerful backdrop to a wonderful cast of characters’ The Good Book Guide

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jim Kelly is a journalist. He lives in Ely with the writer Midge Gillies and their young daughter. He is the author of five novels: The Skeleton Man, The Coldest Blood, The Moon Tunnel, The Fire Baby and The Water Clock, which was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Award for best novel of 2002. He is currently at work on his new mystery, Death Wore White, featuring DI Peter Shaw (who is introduced in The Skeleton Man).

In 2006 Jim Kelly was awarded the Dagger in the Library by the Crime Writers’ Association for a body of work giving ‘greatest enjoyment to crime fiction readers’.

To find out more about Jim Kelly and other Penguin crime writers, go to www.penguinmostwanted.co.uk

The Water Clock

JIM KELLY

PENGUIN BOOKS

For Midge

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published by Michael Joseph 2002

Published in Penguin Books 2003

This edition published 2007

11

Copyright © Jim Kelly, 2002

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-190642-3

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Beverley Cousins, my editor, for her skill, determination, and patience in championing The Water Clock, Faith Evans, my agent, for living up to her name, and Martin Bryant for meticulous copy-editing. Dorothy L. Sayers deserves some belated glory for the inspiration provided by The Nine Tailors. I am indebted to Renee Gillies, Donald Gillies, Bridie Pritchard, Eric Boyle and Jenny Burgoyne for helping with the text. I read many accounts of the 1947 floods in Fenland but must thank all those at The Cambridgeshire Collection for their work in the archives.