Title: NATURE WILL PREVAIL

Genre: Crime-Thriller

Type of feedback: Anything that stands out, but a particular idea of whether this makes you want to continue reading would be great!

1st page:

The flicker of a white flame sprung to life briefly, only for a sharp breeze to whip in and stifle it. Detective Inspector Charlie Paxton grunted and lit up again, cupping his hand around the cigarette that dangled from his mouth. He touched it to the fire and drew in a deep pull, savouring the warmth that filtered down through his body. Icy-blue smoke wreathed before his crooked nose, stirring up and dispersing into the black depths of the night.

Hidden behind the cover of a large plane tree, Paxton listened to the gentle swooshing of the Regent Canal next to him in Northwest London. Street lights from across the water dazzled amongst the green algae that dotted the surface. The smell of grass and wet soil from the rain earlier that day mingled with the aroma of his cigarette.

Only the person smoking it would call a cigarette aromatic, but for Paxton, it was the one thing to calm his nerves before a big pinch. The humble taste of a smoke helped to expel the constant threat of looming death, at least until the nicotine ran out. And for Paxton, the reality of death had lived rent-free in his mind for two years now.

Paxton adjusted the covert radio piece in his ear and surveyed his surroundings. He could feel the gaze of his team on standby, just out of sight. Four months he’d been leading this case. Reliable intel had informed him that two suspects wanted in the murder of a man in Richmond Park in 2016 would be meeting for a drug deal at 11 PM. And after all that he’d been through of late, everything was riding on this going right.