Extract from The Perfect Victim by Corrie Jackson

Today it's the final stop on Corrie Jackson's The Perfect Victim blog tour, I really liked the sound this one but realistically knew I wasn't in a position to review so I'm sharing an extract with you instead. 

Charlie and Emily Swift are the Instagram-perfect couple: gorgeous, successful and in love. But then Charlie is named as the prime suspect in a gruesome murder and Emily's world falls apart.

Desperate for answers, she turns to Charlie's troubled best friend, London Herald journalist, Sophie Kent. Sophie knows police have the wrong man - she trusts Charlie with her life.

Then Charlie flees.

Sophie puts her reputation on the line to clear his name. But as she's drawn deeper into Charlie and Emily's unravelling marriage, she realises that there is nothing perfect about the Swifts.

As she begins to question Charlie's innocence, something happens that blows the investigation - and their friendship - apart.

Now Sophie isn't just fighting for justice, she's fighting for her life.

          A thud thud thud. Rustling.
          I froze. Those sounds weren’t in my head.
         Someone else was in the tunnel.
         I breathed in a rancid smell, heard a grunting noise, something scraping against the floor. Then the sound was coming towards me.
         What the fuck am I doing?
         I squeezed back round and started to scrabble forwards. I’d crawled in so far, I couldn’t see the tunnel opening anymore. My hands scraped along the sharp floor, kicking up dust. The noise grew louder. He was gaining on me. I clawed faster, the
sharp stone floor cutting into my hands. My blood was on fire. I knew I was making a noise but I was desperate to get out before he caught up with me.
         I threw a glance over my shoulder, not knowing how much space there was between us.
         ‘Sophie?’ Kate’s urgent whisper echoed down the tunnel.
         I groped in the darkness, towards the sound of her voice.
         ‘He’s behind me, Kate!’
         A white light flashed ahead. Kate’s torch. A growl pierced the air over my shoulder. I was twenty feet away from the entrance. Fifteen feet. Ten.
         I reached out to grab hold of the opening, when a hand closed around my ankle. It dragged me backwards and I screamed, hitting the stone hard. I felt the weight of him as he clambered over me. Then the sound of a sickening crack outside.
         I lay still, my heart pounding in ears. My ankle burned; I could taste the dust at the back of my throat.
         ‘Kate,’ my voice sounded like it was coming from far away.
         ‘Are you OK?’
         A faint groan. ‘I’m bleeding. My head.’
         I hauled myself forwards and squirmed out of the tunnel. Kate was lying in a heap at the bottom of the steps. I scrabbled towards her, switching on my torch with trembling hands.
         Kate was grey and her teeth were chattering. ‘He hit me. He fucking hit me.’
         In the distance, a siren pierced the air. I pointed the light towards Kate and saw a trail of blood running down her face. I glanced back at the opening in the wall and licked my dry lips. ‘Listen, do you think you can make it to the end of the alleyway by yourself?’
         Blood was dripping onto Kate’s jacket and she raised a hand to assess the damage. ‘Why?’
         I clenched my jaw and looked her in the eye. ‘Don’t you want to know where that tunnel leads? After everything that bastard’s done to us, I’m damned if we’re not getting the story.’
         Kate held my gaze, then nodded once. ‘We’d better get an award for this.’
         She squeezed my arm, then crawled towards the steps. I clamped my torch between my teeth and ducked back inside the tunnel. The rancid smell I noticed before was stronger now. I crawled forwards, ignoring the cuts in my hands. Just after the point where I’d turned round, the tunnel veered sharply to the left. I followed it round and slammed to a halt, staring in amazement.

Corrie Jackson has been a journalist for fifteen years. During that time she has worked at Harper's Bazaar, the Daily Mail, Grazia and Glamour.  Corrie now lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with her husband and two children.

Breaking Dead, her debut novel, was the first in the journalist Sophie Kent series and was described by Glamour as 'Gripping . . .  crime with a side order of chic' and by the Sun as 'Original, amazingly written and tense'.

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