ISLE of Wight author Heaton Wilson’s new crime novel — Whatever it Takes — guides readers along a breathless journey to find the truth.

DCI Jane Birchfield facing a series of personal challenges: a rocky relationship with her partner, her mum hardly talks to her; and her boss and mentor is critically ill, which means she is having to cover his post as well as her own.

Adding fuel to the fire, she soon has to take charge of the toughest of murder investigations.

Young Jamie Castleton is found dead, seemingly frozen in position at a computer in a grubby internet cafe in the Manchester suburb of Ashbridge.

The more Jane and her increasingly enthusiastic team dig under the surface, the more the evidence points to one of Manchester’s biggest companies, Greaves, and its super-wealthy boss, Graeme Hargreaves.

This leads Jane into a sordid underworld, and a surprise twist in the investigation forces her to face up to an event in her own past, that she has kept buried for 25 years.

Heaton explains: “The novel is a story that twists and turns, and builds pace and suspense through each chapter, with a plot that challenges the reader to identify the killer and surprises along the way.

"Whatever It Takes brings the reader closer to the action, by bringing the characters very much to life.”

The author is a former journalist and communications consultant.

He founded Origins Theatre ten years ago, and is also a published playwright, actor and director.

His earlier novel Every Reason was the first to feature DCI Jane Birchfield.

Whatever it Takes is available in WHSmith in paperback form for £8.19, with a Kindle edition on Amazon at a cost of £1.99.