The Illusion of Innocence

Sequel to The Colours of Corruption. Three people on a crowded train, brought there by the same crime. Archie Price, painter and police artist, blessed with a photographic memory, is travelling to Chelmsford to testify in a murder trial. The accused, Freddie Porter, is under police escort in the guard's van. Freddie's sister, Polly, is desperately trying to escape her brother's gang before they realise what she's done, unaware he's on the same train. When the locomotive is derailed, Archie and Polly are injured, and put up by the same local family while they recover. Where is Freddie? Polly is so terrified she is driven to desperate measures and Archie finds himself being drawn into her nightmare...

Jacqueline Jacques was born in Anglesey, North Wales but, having a close affinity with postwar Walthamstow, East London and nearby Epping Forest, is moved to set her novels in the area she knows best. Her working life as a teacher came to an end when the itch to write full-time became unbearable. Since then she has called herself a 'writer' though, nowadays, she finds other interests jostling for her attention, her long-suffering husband, Peter, not least among them. She busies herself, in shielded lockdown, with painting, crafting, working in the garden and on the allotment, attempting to convene the Buckhurst Hill U3A Bookclub on Zoom, and keeping their Creative Writing Group up to speed via email. Then, there are family and friends to enjoy, at a safe social distance, via WhatsApp and Zoom. Sadly, travel, holidays, theatre, concerts and art galleries are now relegated to being virtual pursuits. But the writing goes on, come heat wave or the hell of pandemic, while there's breath in her body and juice in her iPad.