Charity Begins with Murder

Book excerpt: South London, 2005, and Nikki Elliot has been spending the best part of a year living on the dole and developing a taste for daytime television. Finding her last boss's dead body had put her off having a job. But the government is cracking down on the unemployed, and Nikki's personal adviser at the Jobcentre has given her an ultimatum: go for the job at Action in Caring, a small charity, or lose your benefits. Things start to go badly wrong from Nikki's first day when her new boss dies at the management committee meeting. Was it an accident, or had someone spiked the sandwiches? And just how true were the rumours that the finance manager had an unhealthy liking for young boys? Or were the only things being fiddled by Gordon Smedley Action in Caring's accounts? Longlisted in the Mslexia First Novel Competition, 2012, this book keeps you turning pages and has you laughing out loud.