Dead Before Midnight — Robert Charles

When Sandra Bishop is found strangled in the boot of a burned-out car, suspicion automatically falls upon Dennis Hamilton, the man at the wheel when the crash occurred. Hamilton, the author of a dozen crime novels, is suddenly caught up in a tangled mesh of events of the kind he normally creates. Then, he goes on the run and his behaviour becomes irrational. Another girl is murdered, and a vast manhunt is launched through the Breckland forests...