[The Trials of Sarah Newby 01] • A Game of Proof

A mother's worst nightmare - can her son be guilty of murder?

Sarah Newby, who left school at 15, and was living as a teenage single parent on an inner-city estate, has worked her way up to begin a career as a criminal barrister. But what should she do when her own son, Simon, is arrested and charged with a series of brutal rapes and murders? 

Has Sarah, in her single-minded determination to create a career for herself, neglected her son so much that she no longer knows him? He has often lied to her in the past, so how can she trust him when he says he is innocent this time? And what should she do when she herself uncovers evidence that seems to suggest his guilt?

From the AuthorThis is a tale about a tough lady barrister - a British trial lawyer. When it was first published in hardback my agent and editor persuaded me that no one would read a crime thriller with a female main character written by a man, so, reluctantly, I used the pseudonym Megan Stark. But I was always uncomfortable with this - in fact now I think they were plain wrong! So here's the truth - I'm a happily married man with two grown-up daughters, one of whom is now a barrister herself. My family and workplace are full of lots of confident, assertive women, and I find them pretty interesting, so that's the sort of person I chose to write about.  But don't worry, there are men in this story too. Her would-be lover, detective Terry Bateson, a single father, is very definitely male. Very much so. Tall, handsome, tragically flawed - just like me, in fact!

About the AuthorTim Vicary is an award-winning author and a university teacher at the Norwegian Study Centre at the university of York, England. He has published three legal thrillers in 'The Trials of Sarah Newby' series. A Fatal Verdict, the second book in this series, was awarded a B.R.A.G Medallion for an outstanding independent novel in 2012. He has also written about twenty graded readers for foreign learners of English, published by Oxford University Press. In 2010 and 2011 two of these - Titanic and The Everest Story - were each the winners in their category for the Language Learner Literature Award for the Extensive Reading Foundation. He has also published four historical novels.

Tim lives in the English countryside, near York. When he's not writing he likes horse-riding, cycling, and swimming.

His website is http://www.timvicary.com and his blog is http://www.timvicary.wordpress.com