Playing Dead

It’s all fun and games until someone ends up dead…

When Rosa Thorn, star of top soap opera Camden Lock, has her big moment hijacked she is furious.

Her character was about to be revealed as the killer of Elsa Gibson’s character Maudie, but Elsa has used her influence to ensure that she gets the final scene all to herself.

The next day, Elsa is found dead in her dressing room and in a bizarre twist, her own death mimics the death of her character, Maudie.

As someone known to have a grudge against Elsa, and as the last person to see her alive, suspicion falls on Rosa, both from the police and from her colleagues.

Things go from bad to worse when another famous actress, who is an old enemy of Rosa, is also murdered on the very night that she and Rosa met up and supposedly sorted out their differences.

The final straw is at the BAFTA award ceremony in the Grosvenor House Hotel.

Rosa is nominated for Best Supporting Actress but the evening is brought to an abrupt end when yet another woman is brutally murdered shortly after she has been seen talking to Rosa.

Rosa is convinced that someone is out to ruin her and when she talks through everything with her friends Jess and Georgie, she realizes that there are several people who might hate her enough to frame her.

It’s not long before Rosa realises that not only has she been set up as the killer of three innocent people, but that she herself is in mortal danger…

Praise for Vena Cork

‘One of those rare and energetic books you can’t put down yet don’t want to end’ - The Times

‘A compelling, dark-hued psychological thriller that eerily captures some of London’s more sinister undercurrents and sense of menace’ - Guardian

‘In her atmospheric novel Thorn, Vena Cork skillfully builds a sinister feeling of menace surrounding her attractive heroine’ - Sunday Telegraph

‘There’s more to this psychological thriller than meets the eye. Look no further for a real sense of menace’ - Daily Mirror

‘You’ll be gripped as this persuasive thriller races to its grisly conclusion’ - Marie Claire

‘Vena Cork’s perceptions of human nature are spot-on and the suspense is tangible when the small malevolent acts turn into something much more evil and sinister…’ Aberdeen Press & Journal

Vena Cork is from Lancashire, but has lived in London all her adult life. She attended Homerton College, Cambridge, where she was a member of Cambridge Footlights. She is married to the art critic Richard Cork and lives in North West London. She is also the author of Thorn and The Art of the Dying.