Crime Fiction Authors, Murder Mystery Books, Thriller Novel Reviews & True Crime at Tangled Web - Publisher Quercus 08 Jan-March
File Updated: 19/07/2010
New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Quercus Jan-March 08

New
Andrea Canobbio The Natural Disorder of Things Published January 2008 by Quercus at £12.99 ISBN: 1847242502 Tweet This Book


Claudio Fratta is a garden designer; a naturally solitary man, he is nonetheless a playful companion to his nephews. He is at the same time obsessed with the determination to exact vengeance on the loan shark who bankrupted his father and with the pursuit of an enigmatic, alluring woman, one of his clients. Set in an Italian landscape in part unchanged, yet deeply marked by the twentieth century, "The Natural Disorder of Things" is peopled with an authentic cast of contemporary Italy: wealthy dilettantes, ex-convicts, right-wing secessionists, left-wing conspiracy theorists, and immigrant Moroccan, Chinese, and Sikh workers.Andrea Canobbio's masterful and fluid prose captures not only the character of Claudio - who cannot stop mulling over his past , including the death by drugs of his brother - but the central theme of the book: that his history is a burden, a legacy of guilt, silence, and misunderstanding. Professionally, Claudio imposes order on the landscape, but he cannot lay to rest the tragic past for himself and those he loved.

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New
David Ellis Eye of the Beholder Published January 2008 by Quercus at £14.99 ISBN: 1847243053 Tweet This Book

See Review by Bernard Knight ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series
Renowned attorney Paul Riley built a lucrative career on his famous prosecution of Terry Burgos, a serial killer who followed the lyrics of a violent song to gruesomely murder six girls. Now, fifteen years later, the police are confronted with a new series of murders and mutilations. Riley is the first to realize that the two cases are connected - and that the killer seems to be willing to do anything to keep him involved. As the murderer's list of victims becomes less random and more personal, Riley finds himself at the centre of a police task force assigned to catch the murderer - as both an investigator and a suspect.
Driven by his own fear that he overlooked something crucial during the Burgos investigation, Riley must sift through fifteen years of lies in order to uncover the truth. But it's not just the killer who wants the past to stay buried... Full of audacious plot twists and taut suspense, Eye of the Beholder is a heart-pounding thriller filled with dark secrets and the horrific lengths that people will go to keep them.

David Ellis's previous novels include In the Company of Liars, Jury of One, Life Sentence, and Line of Vision, for which he won the Edgar Award. An attorney from Chicago, he currently serves as counsel to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.

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Elena Forbes Die with Me Pbk published January 2008 by Quercus at £6.99 ISBN: 184724291X Tweet This Book

See Review by Bernard Knight ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series

Elena Forbes has lived most of her life in London. After reading Modern Languages at Bristol University she worked as a portfolio manager for international investment banks. She now writes full time and lives in Notting Hill with her husband and two children. The first chapter and synopsis of Die With Me was shortlisted for a debut dagger in 2005.

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New
Andrew Greig Romanno Bridge Published March 2008 by Quercus at £14.99 ISBN: 1847243150 Tweet This Book

'
Where are you heading?' Leo replied 'Where do you need to go?' He got in, wondering how she knew about the loss, then they drove into the night and whatever was waiting there. A motorcyclist with a stolen ring walks into Rothiemurchus Forest until he finds a quiet place to die. A woman with an eventful past has signed the Official Secrets Act and gone to Dumfries to forget a man and keep out of trouble. In comfortable Crieff, a retired historian publishes an obscure article on the survival of the Stone of Destiny, then has his throat cut. A man with a long blade in a tan holster under his suit, a fondness for bird-watching, and memories of his short-lived Punk band Anger Management, has taken a commission to retrieve an object so valuable and mythic it might not exist.A rugby-playing half-Maori named Leo Nagotoa stands in the sleet by Romanno Bridge in the Scottish Borders, trying to thumb a lift when his Destiny slithers up alongside him. The hunt for the crowning stone of the Dalriadic kings, the Stone of Scone - is worth enough to make life cheap for some and dear to others - has begun.
Some of the cast of The Return of John Macnab are back, but the times and the mood have changed. "Romanno Bridge" is a wintry thriller, an entertainment, a quest and an exploration of contemporary themes of fakes, frauds, copies, and a struggle to find the Real Thing, wherever and whatever it might be.

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New
David Ignatius Body of Lies Published February 2008 by Quercus at £12.99 ISBN: 1847243274 Tweet This Book


Roger Ferris is one of the CIA's soldiers in the war on terrorism. He has come out of Iraq with a shattered leg and an intense mission - to penetrate the network of a master terrorist known only as "Suleiman." Ferris' plan for getting inside Suleiman's tent is inspired by a masterpiece of British intelligence during World War II: He prepares a body of lies, literally the corpse of an imaginary CIA officer who appears to have accomplished the impossible by recruiting an agent within the enemy's ranks. This scheme binds friend and foe in a web of extraordinary subtlety and complexity, and when it begins to unravel, Ferris finds himself flying blind into a hurricane. His only hope is the urbane head of Jordan's intelligence service - a man who might be an Arab version of John le Carre's celebrated spy, George Smiley. But can Ferris trust him?

David Ignatius is a prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post, and has been covering the Middle East and the CIA for more than twenty-five years. He is the author of several novels, including Agents of Innocence
Video URL: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1783038233/

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Philip Kerr The One from the Other: A Bernie Gunther Novel Pbk published March 2008 by Quercus at £7.99 ISBN: 1847242928 Tweet This Book

See Review by Bob Cornwell
See Review by Bernard Knight ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series

Washington Post Kerr is a fine novelist...he's in a league with John le Carré and Alan Furst
New York Times Book Review Bernie Gunther's the right kind of hero for his time - and ours
Publisher's Weekly Kerr's stylish noir writing makes every page a joy to read

Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh and went on to study at the University of Birmingham. He has written three other Bernie Gunther books and a book for children, entitled Children of the Lamp. He lives in London and Cornwall. He is currently working on a new Bernie Gunther novel.

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New
Marek Krajewski Death in Breslau Published March 2008 by Quercus at £12.99 ISBN: 1847242529 Tweet This Book

See Review by Bob Cornwell
See Review by Ian Morson Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger

Breslau was a German city on the border of Czechoslovakia. It is now, since World War II, Wroclaw, in Poland. Marek Krajewski has written a quartet of novels which unfold the history of this exceptional city, standing on the faultline and crossroads of 20th century Europe. In Breslau 1933: the mutilated body of a young woman, an aristocrat, is found dead on a train. Scorpions writhe in her slashed stomach - a horrifying image that becomes crucial to the investigation. Inspector Eberhard Mock is called in to deal with the case, and is assigned an assistant, Herbert Anwaldt, an orphan.The investigation leads them deep into the city's dirty underbelly, where perverted aristocrats cavort with prostitutes, corrupt ministers torture confessions from lowly Jews and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and daggers. As Mock and Anwaldt unravel a mystery of ritual killing that dates back to the time of the Crusades, the elderly Mock and the young, fatherless Anwaldt become close. But the dark, occult aspect of this most macabre of cases, coupled with the heavy presence of Germany's secret police proves too much for Anwaldt's sanity. What makes Krajewski's story so uncommonly powerful is the stifling atmosphere he conjures of a city in the grip of the Gestapo.

iMarek Krajewsk is a lecturer in Classical Studies in the University of Wroclaw. His Eberhard Mock quartet of novels enjoyed massive success in Germany and Poland and is now being translated into the major European languages

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New
Stieg Larsson The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Published January 2008 by Quercus at £14.99 ISBN: 1847242537 Tweet This Book

See Review by Bob Cornwell

Steve Murray (Translator)
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone in her own family - the deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired to investigate, but when he links Harriet's disappearance to a string of gruesome murders from forty years ago, he needs a competent assistant - and he gets one: computer hacker Lisbeth Salander - a tattoed, truculent, angry girl who rides a motorbike like a Hell's Angel and handles makeshift weapons with the skill born of remorseless rage. This unlikely pair form a fragile bond as they delve into the sinister past of this island-bound, tightly-knit family. But the Vangers are a secretive lot, and Mikael and Lisbeth are about to find out just how far they're prepared to go to protect themselves - and each other.

Stieg Larsson was a financial journalist. He finished the three novels that are the "Millennium Trilogy" and then telephoned a publisher before delivering all three typescripts. He died very soon after the publication of the first one in Sweden.

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Otto Penzler(ed) Pulp Fiction: The Villains: An Omnibus Pbk published February 2008 by Quercus at £8.99 ISBN: 1847243339 Tweet This Book


Good Book Guide Rich and glorious...such is the intelligence of the selection that there's ne'r a dull piece here

Harlan Ellison introduces a collection of 16 taut and muscular tales starring some of fiction's hardest-boiled criminals, crooks, deperados and rogues. Anti-heroes to a man, these are the guys who can be guaranteed to outwit the cops, make off with the dough and get the girl. Just don't get in their way. Legendary writers you've already heard of like Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner, Cornell Woolrich and Raymond Chandler are here. Legendary writers that you should have heard of like Frederick Nebel, James M. Cain, Norbert Davis, Leslie Charteris, C. S. Montayne and Raoul Whitfield are also where they should be - with the greats. Tailor-made for pulp novices and hard-boiled fans with a soft spot for the masters, this collection shows that some writing has an edge that time just can't dull.

Harlan Ellison is renowned in the fields of science fiction, fantasy and crime fiction for his dry, cutting writing. He is the author of Rumble (Web of the City) and The Sound of a Scythe. He has won numerous awards including two Edgars. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife.
Otto Penzler is the founder of New York's Mysterious Bookshop and the Mysterious Press. He lives in New York.

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Thomas Perry Silence Pbk published March 2008 by Quercus at £6.99 ISBN: 1847243355 Tweet This Book

See Review by Ian Morson Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger

Six years ago, Wendy Harper was running for her life. Jack Till, an ex-cop turned private eye, helped her disappear. He did a very good job of it and even Jack has no idea where she might be. But now, her ex-boyfriend and former business partner is being framed for her presumed murder in an effort to smoke her out. Jack must find her before a pair of hired assassins do. The assassins, a husband and wife team, are as sinister as they come, and when their shadowy employer looks like he is going to double-cross them, finishing the job is no longer enough...

Thomas Perry won an Edgar for The Butcher's Boy, and Metzger's Dog was one of The New York Times' Notable Books of the Year. His other books include The Face-Changers, Shadow Woman, Dance for the Dead and Vanishing Act. He lives in Southern California with his wife and two daughters.

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Matt Rubinstein Vellum Pbk published January 2008 by Quercus at £6.99 ISBN: 1847242936 Tweet This Book


In the crypt of an old stone church in Sydney, a translator and linguist uncovers a vellum-bound, illuminated manuscript. Written in a mysterious alphabet, Jack's not sure if his discovery is a hoax, a code, or even the only written record of a now forgotten language. Intrigued, he starts investigating. Using forensic and linguistic techniques, Jack starts unveiling the manuscript's history and soon discovers that he is not the first to try and decode its secrets. His predecessors were shadowy figures, monks from furtive religious orders, cryptographers and alchemists. As his researches take him ever deeper into the labyrinthine past - to the crusades, the library of Alexandria and even earlier - Jack's obsession grows. He realises that what he has stumbled across has put his life at risk and the only way to save himself is to break the manuscript's code and learn its secrets... The title, "A Little Rain on Thursday", comes from a Russian colloquialism that loosely translates as 'never' - much like the English phrase 'on a cold day in Hell'.

Matt was born in 1974 in Sydney, Australia, and lived in Adelaide for 15 years before returning to Sydney in 1997. He practised law for five years and now writes full-time. He is currently working on a new novel, a feature film script and several short film projects. He is Gillian Rubinstein's (aka Lian Hearn) son.

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Richard Stark Breakout Pbk published March 2008 by Quercus at £6.99 ISBN: 1847244467 Tweet This Book


In a hulking drab warehouse in a hulking drab city in the center of an empty state, Parker is caught moving pharmaceuticals into a waiting truck. Led into a joint called Stoneveldt - from which no one has ever escaped - Parker has to find a way out, before his whole violent past catches up with him. And getting out of Stoneveldt means taking on the only partners he can find, including one who is already planning his next job. For Parker and his fellow jail breakers, freedom is just another word for committing their next felony. They pull off the perfect jailbreak and then start the perfect heist. But things go south in a hurry - leaving three men dead and Parker and his fellow escape artists scratching, clawing, and running for their lives. Suddenly, the big, drab city in the big, empty Midwestern state has become a prison. A cast of cops, busybodies, snitches, and weak links have turned into jailers. And for Parker, the ultimate jailbreak is about to begin.

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Richard Stark Firebreak Pbk published March 2008 by Quercus at £6.99 ISBN: 1847244475 Tweet This Book


Parker put down the body and answered the phone. And from that moment he had two jobs to do. One was to rob a remote Montana lodge where a dot-com billionaire had hidden stolen art treasures in his basement. The other was to find out why a hit man had come to Parker's home - and who sent him. Parker couldn't do one job if he didn't finish the other. The master thief wasn't the only one in his crew with scores to settle. Recently released from prison, Lloyd is the brains behind the Montana heist, the only guy who can crack the lodge's alarm system. But Lloyd had a quarrel with some former partners - and a temper. And when he explodes, and shoots a guy through the eye, Parker just happens to be by his side. In Firebreak Richard Stark has elevated the noir novel to a kind of relentless poetry, painting a searing portrait of seemingly ordinary men moonlighting in death and destruction. From an elderly husband-and-wife team of assassins to a pair of crippled criminals stewing in their hatred for Parker, Firebreak is a furious drama acted out by people who know only one way to fight fire: with fire.

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Peter Temple Black Tide Pbk published February 2008 by Quercus at £6.99 ISBN: 1847242979 Tweet This Book


Peter Temple is the winner of the 2007 CWA Duncan Lawrie Dagger

In the late autumn, down windy streets raining yellow oak and elm leaves, I went to George Armit's funeral. It was a small affair. Almost everyone George had known was dead. Many of them were dead because George had had them killed...' Jack Irish however, has no shortage of friends. Jockeys and journos, lawyers and standover men, people in nameless occupations who aren't in the phone book. These days, though, the only family he sees are Irish men in faded football team photographs on the pub wall. So when Des Connors, the last link to his father, calls to ask for help in the matter of a missing son, Jack is happy to lend a hand. But sometimes prodigal sons go missing for a reason. As Jack begins to dig, he discovers that Gary Connors was a man with something to hide. And his friends are people with darker and more deadly secrets.

Five-time winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction, Peter Temple is Australia's most acclaimed crime and thriller writer. He is the author of three other Jack Irish novels: Bad Debts (1996), Dead Point (2000) and White Dog (2003). He has also written four standalone novels: An Iron Rose (1998), Shooting Star (1999) In the Evil Day (2002) and The Broken Shore (2005). He lives in Ballarat, Australia, with his family.

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Michael Walters The Adversary Pbk published March 2008 by Quercus at £6.99 ISBN: 1847243363 Tweet This Book

See Review by Bernard Knight ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series
See Review by Ian Morson Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger

A vividly atmospheric sequel to The Shadow Walker
Inspector Nergui returns to the backstreets of Ulan Baatar and Mongolia's desolate steppes in the second instalment of Michael Walters' unique crime series.

In Ulan Baatar, a high-profile criminal prosecution collapses as police evidence is revealed to have been faked. The female judge, Radnaa, throws out the case and the defendant, Muunokhoi, a wealthy and influential businessman with suspected links to organised crime, walks free. Meanwhile, on the Mongolian steppes, the police discover the body of a woman who has been tortured before being murdered. Nergui is assigned to conduct an internal enquiry into Muunokhoi's failed prosecution, while Doripalam has to deal with both a major murder investigation and suspected corruption in his own team.
Tunjin, an alcoholic and overweight member of the Serious Crimes Unit, is suspended, accused of forging evidence in an attempt to secure Muunokhoi's prosecution. Cut adrift from the police, he realises that Muunokhoi's men are pursuing him, determined to exact revenge. He flees to the industrial ruins of the city, knowing it is only a matter of time before he is discovered.
As the book moves towards its climax, Doripalam faces gunfire in the northern mountains, Nergui is attacked and Judge Radnaa is kidnapped. Meanwhile Tunjin decides to take matters into his own hands. And,
as Nergui frantically tries to put together the pieces of this jigsaw, he begins to realise that Muunokhoi's influence is more malign and far-reaching than he could ever have suspected.

Michael Walters has worked in the oil industry, broadcasting and banking. Over the last decade, he has worked as a management consultant across the world, in environments ranging from parliaments to prisons. When not travelling, he lives in Manchester with his wife and three children.

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