Pinpoint [Kindle Edition]

Sheila Mary Taylor (Author)

Book Description

A lawyer, a murderer and a policeman – caught in a tangled web of love, loss, terror and intrigue in this driving psychological thriller.

When criminal lawyer Julia Grant interviews Sam Smith who has been charged with a vicious murder, she feels a strange connection to him.

Has she met him before? Does he hold a key to her lost childhood memories?

He feels a connection too. “Julia, you are the only one who can help me,” he pleads.

Is it the same connection? Does he know something she cannot recall?

When he is duly convicted despite her best efforts, he suddenly turns on her in the courtroom and threatens that one day he will make sure to wreak his revenge on her.

But why?

What has she ever done to him?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sheila Mary Taylor was born in Cape Town beneath the towering slopes of Table Mountain. She was trained as a ballet dancer but stopped dancing in her early twenties when she started moving around the world with her husband and living in exotic places. Her plethora of unusual activities - jockey in Amateur Ladies’ races, a spell of acting and directing, editor of a dramatic society magazine, secretary to a diplomat, dancing in the Royal Albert Hall, roller skating in night-clubs, just to name a few - have all enriched and inspired her writing. Pinpoint is her first crime thriller. During her research Sheila was smuggled into an interview room at Strangeways Prison to witness a consultation with a murderer. She roamed the seedy streets of Manchester’s notorious downtown Moss Side district, masquerading as a social worker. She ventured into derelict buildings, walked along the tow-paths of deserted canals, wandered over the moors, took a ride in an ambulance and attended a course in self-protection given by a Black-belt karate expert. She even broke her leg, but not in the same way as her danger-defying main character Julia did.

Product Details

• File Size: 644 KB
• Print Length: 365 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1461049148
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Taylor Street Publishing (March 31, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004UST5Q8
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,392 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 75 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting legal thriller with a twist. April 11, 2011

By Peter Belshaw

Format:Kindle Edition

I am a criminal defense lawyer and am easily disappointed by legal thrillers that don't have a ring of authenticity; not so with Pinpoint. The characters are strong and believable: Julia, a defense lawyer, Paul, a senior police detective, and Sam, Julia's ruthless client, convicted of murder, who escapes and whilst on the run, threatens to kidnap her daughter to extort money from her to aid his plans to remain at large.
Julia's nightmare is that she believes Sam may be her long lost twin, who protected her against appalling abuse as a child, and who had been separated from her in the wake of events so awful that they are now shrouded in the swirling mist of post-traumatic amnesia. She experiences flashbacks and the story of her twin's disappearance and the abuse they both suffered begins to unravel in painful episodes as she is stalked by Sam following his dramatic escape from custody.
I wanted to scream at Julia when she was under threat from her client and being stalked by him, as she refuses the help of Paul, with whom she has been having a slow burning affair across the yawning cultural divide between Police and criminal lawyers, and yet her weakness is part of the strength of the story.
There are several strands of conflict and tension that are beautifully interwoven, and you will find that the final resolution remains in cliff-hanging doubt as you race to the end.
The legal content of the novel is deftly and authentically handled without either police or legal procedure being allowed to swamp the real human stories, and all is set on a realistic canvas of Manchester and the surrounding area.
The novel is a kaleidoscope of charm, love, sadness, horror, evil, loss and redemption. What more can you ask for? If you are into Rankin, Nesbo, Grisham and McDermid, pick up Sheila Mary Taylor - you won't regret it.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, enthralling, full of suspense April 12, 2011

By G. McCullough

Format:Kindle Edition

Taylor takes us by the throat and holds on throughout this amazing book. You won't be able to put it down. This is very much my kind of book, beautifully written , the characters drawn in-depth, and the plot fast moving enough to keep me turning the pages. Why it hasn't been snapped up by a major publisher remains a mystery = possibly because Sheila Mary Taylor isn't yet a celebrity. But she will be soon, if she can produce more books like this one. Believable, exciting, enjoyable - the list of appreciative adjectives is endless. Now I have this on my Kindle app, I'll be re-reading it on a regular basis, as I do with all my favourite books. Sheila Mary Taylor, join the ranks! You are up there with the greats of crime writing.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed July 30, 2011

By Sharbart

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I saw this book had so many high reviews I was expecting a great read. I can not count the times I almost stopped reading out of disgust that this woman had so little sense. How can a character who is supposed to be a successful member of the Brittish legal system behave in such a ridiculous manner?
It seems ludicrous that a policeman who has risen in a large metropolitan police force would not recognize the signs of sexual trauma in her. Surely he should figure out how damaged she is psychologically as their relationship has progressed.
Don't bother reading this book, it is just too frustrating.

More About the Author

Born in Cape Town beneath the towering slopes of Table Mountain, married to mining engineer Colin Belshaw and mother of Colin, Peter and Andrew.

Sheila is a "swallow"; she lives from November to May in Cape Town, and May to November in the Mediterranean island of Menorca, with the odd month in the spring and autumn at her home in Wilmslow, England. She has books published under the names of Sheila Belshaw, Sheila Mary Taylor (her maiden name), and in the literary world is also known as Sheila Mary Belshaw.

All her books are available both as paperbacks and e-books. Her psychological legal/crime thriller set in Manchester, UK - "Pinpoint" - by Sheila Mary Taylor has been featured in the Amazon.com Kindle top 100 Mystery/Crime Bestseller list several times.

Her inspiring memoir "Fly With A Miracle" by Sheila Belshaw, published by Denor Press in 1999 about her son Andrew's heroic battle against teenage bone cancer is now available in an updated revised edition with the new title of "Count to Ten", by Sheila Mary Taylor, published by Taylor Street Publishing in San Francisco, for whom Sheila also works as an editor. (There is no family connection between Sheila and the publishers: the similarity in names is a coincidence.)

Her latest novel 'Dance to a Tangled Web', published in February 2013, is a romantic drama set in London and Menorca, and her work in progress is called 'Golden Sapphire'. This is set in the Gemfields of Queensland and in London, and is also a romantic drama. All Sheila's fiction is set in places she has lived in permanently, or knows very well.

There is also a short novella - 'Eldorado' set in Ghana.

With her editing hat on, Sheila recently resurrected and edited three of her late mother's unpublished novels - "Kathie", "Don't Tread on My Dreams", and "Rage of Life" by Dora Taylor, all of which were published in 2008 and 2009 by Penguin, 33 years after her mother's death. Dora Taylor subsequently won the South African Posthumous Literary Award.

Sheila loves writing romantic novels and has four romances published which will also soon be available as e-books on Amazon.