Fiona Govan
AN-DEPTH study of the Madeleine McCann case and its links to a German convict has been released this week by the Olive Press editor.
Jon Clarke’s book My Search for Madeleine has involved 14 months of research taking him to Portugal half a dozen times, as well as Germany and many parts of Spain.
Already gathering good critical acclaim, the 130,000-word 46-chapter book is the most detailed, investigative look yet at the case and its close links to current prime suspect Christian Brueckner.
Released today on Amazon, it details the German’s grim early upbringing, his first offences and exactly how he fled justice by going to Portugal at just 18, with his then-girlfriend Silke.
As well as speaking to some of his victims, Clarke traced his frequent journeys into Spain and even to Italy and Eastern Europe.
He is currently suspected of being involved in the cases of at least four missing children and countless more rapes and sex assaults around Europe.
According to the prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters he faces ‘up to six years’ alone for exposing himself to four children in a playpark in Portugal in 2017.
But his movements in the spring of 2007, following his release from prison in Christmas, 2006 are the most intriguing.
And this book provides insight into why German police are so sure he snatched and killed Madeleine that year.
The convicted paedophile and rapist was known to be outside the Algarve apartment, where Maddie disappeared on May 3, 2007 just days before her fourth birthday.
Clarke, 52, has talked at length to a dozen close friends and acquaintances of the German, who lived in the resort of Praia da Luz for seven years.
He has also interviewed serving detectives, met Brueckner’s mother, and grilled the chief prosecutor in Germany.
Described as an ‘astonishing’ and ‘fast-paced’ read, Sky News veteran crime correspondent Martin Brunt praised the book as ‘tirelessly researched’, adding: “It told me a lot of things I didn’t know about the case.”
Meanwhile, The Daily Mail’s Susie Dowdall described it as a “fascinating account of the inner workings of an extremely seedy place,” while The Sun’s Mike Ridley insisted “the book exposes the secret dark world behind the biggest mystery of the 21st century.”
Buy the paperback book or Kindle version in Spain HERE
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