A Pattern of Lies (35 page)

Authors: Charles Todd

BOOK: A Pattern of Lies

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There was in fact a terrible explosion and fire at the Oare Gunpowder Works near Faversham in Kent on 2 April 1916. Accounts vary, but more than a hundred men were killed. It was a tragedy for the Âpeople of The Swale both personally and economically, and it had dire consequences for the war effort barely two months before the bloody and fierce fighting at the Battle of the Somme.

We'd heard about this event many times during our visits to Kent. The Oare Gunpowder Works is now a lovely outdoor park where visitors can learn more about what happened and how gunpowder was made. It's well worth a visit. And there are the real graves of the real victims in Faversham.

Having lived in Delaware, where the Hagley Mills made gunpowder for du Pont and often dealt with sudden death, we were intrigued by what might happen to a small community when it is visited by such a calamity, natural or man-Âmade, and how Âpeople cope when the inexplicable changes their world.

A Pattern of Lies
is not the story of the Oare Works or its aftermath. Instead it is a look at a fictional village where the livelihood of many Âpeople depended on the powder mill, and the loss of life touched almost every household. We have borrowed some of the details from the 1916 event because they fit the story we wanted to tell. That is all we have borrowed. But we are reminded of what someone said in another more modern disaster:
When you can't blame God, what do you do?

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

C
HARLES
T
ODD
is the author of the Bess Crawford mysteries, the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, and two stand-Âalone novels. A mother and son writing team, they live in Delaware and North Carolina.

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A
LSO BY
C
HARLES
T
ODD

The Ian Rutledge Mysteries

A Test of Wills

Wings of Fire

Search the Dark

Legacy of the Dead

Watchers of Time

A Fearsome Doubt

A Cold Treachery

The Bess Crawford Mysteries

An Unwilling Accomplice

Other Fiction

The Murder Stone

The Walnut Tree

C
REDITS

Jacket design by James Iacobelli

Jacket photographs: Â© by Mark Owen/Trevillion Images (woman);

Â© by Malgorzata Maj/Arcangel Images (hat);

Â© by Debra Lill/Trevillion Images (background)

C
OPYRIGHT

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A PATTERN OF LIES.
Copyright Â© 2015 by Charles Todd. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-Â0-Â06-Â238624-Â3

EPub Edition AUGUST 2015 ISBN: 9780062386267

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A
BOUT THE
P
UBLISHER

Australia

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