THE PERFECT VICTIM by Corrie Jackson
THE PERFECT VICTIM is the second thriller in the Sophie Kent series.
When a female lawyer’s body is found floating in the River Thames, London Herald journalist, Sophie Kent, is devastated to learn the prime suspect is her charismatic best friend, Charlie Swift. Police have the wrong man; Sophie trusts him with her life. Charlie is handsome, successful and devoted to his wife, Emily. But then evidence reveals he was having an affair with the victim and Charlie disappears.
Unwilling to give up on her friend, Sophie joins forces with Emily to clear his name, clashing with a new police chief along the way. As Sophie digs deeper, she finds herself caught up in Charlie’s secret life, his unravelling marriage and his violent past. Struggling to reconcile these findings with the man she knows, Sophie becomes increasingly isolated as she faces the uncomfortable truth: how far will she go for friendship?
Events gather pace as Sophie unearths a link between Charlie and a religious cult that made headlines in the 1980s. Does this cult – and its sadistic founder Laurence Marlon – hold the key to Charlie’s whereabouts? Just as Sophie starts to believe in Charlie again, something happens that blows the investigation – and their friendship – apart.
Meanwhile DCI Sam Durand – Sophie’s inside source at the Met and blossoming love interest – begins to suspect Emily, who’s too willing to share every detail of the unfolding nightmare on her blog. When Sophie starts to question Emily’s innocence, the two women find themselves embroiled in a very public showdown that has devastating consequences.
Shortly after, another body turns up in a burnt-out car. When Sophie discovers who the victim is the bottom falls out of her world.
With suspicion falling everywhere, Sophie doesn’t know who to trust. Least of all herself. She’s wrung-out, still struggling to cope after discovering her brother Tommy was murdered. It takes all her strength just to turn up to work each day. And, as she closes in on the truth, Sophie finds herself at the mercy of a killer who second-guesses her every move. A killer who knows her inside out. Now Sophie isn’t just fighting for justice. She’s fighting for her life.
