You know, when you say your marriage vows, they're
supposed to be for real. I mean ...
if you think back about what you really said, what
it's all about, honor, loving and
obeying till death do us part and all. But it
shouldn't be that way, it should ... it
should, it should be lies because it turns out to
be lies. If you don't honor

what you said, you lie to God. The words should be changed

 When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You  by  Marvin Gaye

LYING TO GOD

The second Mike Barton novel

 by Ian Gosling

CAMBRIDGE – OCTOBER 1993

Two men sit at opposite ends of a large kitchen table and look at each other. Eyeball-to-eyeball – two stares cast across the wooden slab, collide in the middle, and lock together in combat. The silence grows, bearing down on them, until the look on face of the younger man says – enough. The older man looks down at the table – breaking the spell. He knocks back another shot of whiskey and slowly nods his head.

     He speaks just three words, ‘Yeah … I’m ok.’  It means nothing. Words are not enough to seal their pact.

He lifts his head again. Now his eyes are like open windows.

He allows the other man’s stare to penetrate, all the way to that place where, without the distortion of words, it is impossible to conceal a lie.

Four women will soon be dead.

CAMBRIDGE – OCTOBER 2006

Adam has spent months planning his revenge. His preparation is meticulous. The abduction, imprisonment and disposal of each woman will be carefully planned and executed, leaving the police with little in the way of either forensic evidence or witnesses. As the city relaxes, enjoying an Indian summer, Adam takes his first victim. By the time she is discovered, he will already have taken his second.

The quiet peace of a Sunday morning walk by the River Cam is suddenly shattered by the gruesome discovery of a woman’s body, hanging naked and mutilated, under a bridge.   Detective Superintendent Mike Barton soon realises that the murder could be a copy-cat killing. Thirteen years earlier, Barton had been instrumental in the arrest and conviction  of the notorious Cambridge Ripper, and this latest killing bears a striking resemblance. Then,  Barton receives an email from the killer, promising more victims.

Adam is ruthless, cold-blooded killer.  His first victim is selected for no other reason than he needs to practice; to perfect his ‘work’. The second killing  is unplanned – but necessary. The others will be punished for 'Lying to God', and the police soon start to make connections.

This fast moving story, explores the mind of a calculating serial killer, as he seeks to justify and explain his actions

to Barton, as he taunts him with a series of bizarre emails

to his victims as he tortures them before they die

to himself as both victim and avenger

Adam is judge, jury and executioner and he claims to be carrying out God’s work

Does he really believe this?

Or is he too … Lying to God?

© Ian Gosling 2008

click here to read a draft of Chapter 1