New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Harvill 07 Jan-March

File Updated: 15/04/2009

New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Harvill JAN-MARCH 07

Ray French Going Under Pbk published January 2007 by Harvill at Ł11.99 ISBN: 0436210215

The future looks bleak for Aidan Walsh. He stands to lose his job as the last major employer in a dead-end Welsh town prepares to close its factory and relocate to India. Then Aidan hatches a startling plan. He buries himself alive in a coffin in his back garden, announcing that he's not coming back up until everyone's job is saved. Publicity is everything these days, and Aidan knows he must attract the attention of the media if he is to have a chance. Slowly, people warm to his cause, locally at first, and then from further afield, as news of his remarkable protest travels. And so begins a titanic battle of wills between an unlikely hero and a powerful corporation. "Going Under" explores the ties of love, friendship, family and community in a story full of humour, human frailty, resourcefulness and - ultimately - triumph.

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Christopher Goffard Snitch Jacket Published March 2007 by Harvill at Ł12.99 ISBN: 1846550130

Benny Bunt is an ex-speed freak, a helplessly dominated husband, a misfit on the sun-bleached, fog-drenched streets of Southern California, and a barfly who makes pocket money snitching on his friends. You will like him. 'Everybody knows that California sunshine is the world's loneliest light,' says Benny, who inhabits an underworld of desperados and grotesques and spends much of his free time at the Greasy Tuesday, a squalid neighbourhood dive teeming with legends. One night, one of these legends walks through the door: Gus 'Mad Dog' Miller, a huge, tattoo-laden Vietnam vet who sports a necklace of severed ears and is said to have lobotomized a gang of Viet Cong with a single chopstick. Benny soon finds himself entranced by this twisted Falstaffian personality. Six months later, Benny is arrested on suspicion of double murder after attending the freak 'Howling Head' festival in the Mojave Desert. Goffard, a reporter for the "Los Angeles Times", now lends his considerable talent to fiction, bringing to life the darker side of west coast counter-culture through a colourful array of bizarre, ribald characters. "Snitch Jacket" will be a delight for fans of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen and Hunter S Thompson, and Benny Bunt will definitely give the Coen brothers' The Dude a run for his money.

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Natsuo Kirino Grotesque Published February 2007 by Harvill at Ł17.99 ISBN: 1843432706
See Review by Bob Cornwell

Two prostitutes have been murdered in Tokyo. Yuriko had been working as a prostitute all her adult life, starting while still at school, where her stunning beauty compensated for what she lacked in intellect and commanded attention from older men. Kazue worked for a blue-chip company and had good career prospects, but was unpopular with colleagues and felt isolated. She chose to walk the streets at night where she hoped to get noticed. Twenty years previously, both women were educated at an elite school for young ladies, and both exhibited exceptional promise prior to their brutal , unnecessary deaths. How and why did this tragedy occur? With narration from Yuriko's embittered, unattractive sister and through the girls' journals and diaries Kirino allows their shocking story to unfurl. As with "Out", "Grotesque" gets under the skin, and Kirino's analysis of the female psyche grips the reader. The extreme need to succeed, and the vicious desire to be accepted in the bewildering environment of modern life is explored here with acute and chilling insight. "Grotesque" is a masterful and haunting achievement.

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Giulio Leoni The Third Heaven Conspiracy Published January 2007 by Harvill at Ł12.99 ISBN: 184343279X

It was Italy, June, 1300. In a disused church on the outskirts of Florence, the master craftsman, Ambrogio, is found murdered at the foot of an unfinished mosaic. A young Dante Alighieri, (future author of "The Divine Comedy") the recently elected Prior to the City of Florence, is called upon to investigate. He discovers that the church was in the process of being renovated as a university, at the behest of the new Pope, Bonifacius VIII. Closer inspection reveals catacombs beneath the floor, populated with beggars and thieves who speak of witchcraft and satanic practices held above. Meanwhile, the Church, on learning of Dante's involvement, begins to show an unusual interest in Ambrogio's fate. But, Dante has one further lead; Ambrogio belonged to a society of learned men, The Third Heaven. Dante learns they are in Florence for the founding of the new university, and believes that if he can infiltrate this group he may learn the significance of Ambrogio's work; maybe the key to the murder is the mosaic itself. Leoni sets this clever dark-ages thriller in a city on edge, nervously recovering from civil war. Medieval Florence is portrayed with stunning clarity; a city on the cusp of the Renaissance, in which new learning - in the guise of Dante - takes on the dark forces of old. "The Third Heaven Conspiracy" is a breathtaking and authentic whodunit from a country re-known for religious intrigue and mystery.

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