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James Elliott
Endgame
Published March 2000 by Piatkus at £17.99
ISBN: 0749905271
Artwork by: Jacket design: Gary Day-Ellison
While Fishing Ben Stafford and Eddie Barnes see a smell private jet crash into a lake. Everyone aboard has been killed instantly, but they also find $20,000 000 in cash. With no witnesses, the two old friends strike a deal - a 50:50 split. After all, who will ever know? However, the CIA is tracking their every move. And when you steal from the government there's nowhere to run...
From the author of Nowhere to Hide and Cold, Cold Heart:
'simply the best suspense novel of the year' Stephen King
Alex Graham
The Shaft
Pbk published February 2000 by Piatkus at £5.99
ISBN: 0749931868 Artwork by: Cover photograph: Adam Randolph
An idealistic new PR manager arrives at a remote nuclear reprocessing plant in the far north of Scotland. Mel is fleeing a traumatic past but the plant is no refuge' for her troubled spirit. An arrogant, incestuous world of distorted values and twisted morality confronts her. A sinister cliff-top shaft packed with nuclear waste reveals its appalling secrets, but who can she trust? The body count mounts in Mel's anxious mind. Is she becoming paranoid or will she be next?
Alex Graham knows the nuclear industry from the inside and paints, to quote one reviewer, a 'chillingly realistic' picture of an ageing, decrepit reprocessing plant and of the remote Scottish community dependent on it. Unlovely and unloved, too far from Whitehall for the politicians and bureaucrats to care until something goes wrong, it is a world where thwarted ambition decomposes personal morality and the environment is the loser. Individuals play God with horrifying consequences.
'A spine-chilling page-turner' The Sunday Post
'This distinctly superior thriller .. powerful literate narrative'
James Melville - Hamstead & Highgate Express
Alex Graham was born on 29 February 1964 in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, the only child of a raspberry farmer and a Cornish folk musician. Alex studied marine biology at university and then departed to see the world, spending several lotus-eating months in the islands of the South Pacific before moving on to South and Central America. While living in a remote Indian village in Guatemala, Alex helped set up a clothing co-operative. Alex was particularly pleased to hear President Clinton's recent apology for America's backing of oppressive regimes in the country during the time Alex spent there.
Travelling on up the west coast of the United States to Seattle Alex found a permanent partner in Kim and they worked together there on a local newspaper for a while. But after eight years away, Alex began to pine for Scotland and returned with Kim. Using the marine biology qualification Alex began to work for a nuclear energy organisation as an environmental monitor, but after a while became disillusioned by the pressures to cut costs and the push to privatisation. Alex resigned.
Since then Alex and Kim have lived with their child, Hope, on a small holding in the Scottish lowlands, supplementing their income by journalism and music. They are becoming increasingly popular on the folk music circuit for their imaginative fusion of Celtic and South American rhythms and perform at festivals of world music.
In order not to embarrass old friends from travelling days or the nuclear industry, who have generously contributed anecdotes about anything from drugs to radiation doses. Alex will not give face to face interviews or speak to the public about The Shaft. However, Alex is prepared to indicate press reports about incidents in the nuclear industry in the UK (not all in Scotland) similar to those used as background to The Shaft, and to indicate the published sources of material quoted on relative risk.
If pressed, Alex might be prepared to answer questions about places visited, adventures experienced, Alex and Kim's philosophy of life and views on science and technology and the threat they can pose, (Alex is particularly worried about genetically modified foods) However, such questions must be directed through the publisher. An e-mail interview might be possible if Alex could be induced to put aside a growing aversion to instant communication and high technology.
Patricia Le Roy
The Glass Palace Chronicle
Pbk published January 2000 by Piatkus at £6.99
ISBN: 074993154X Artwork by: Cover design: Gary Day-Ellison
Claudia is a bored young English woman living on the fringes of society. With no money, no job and no ticket home, her decision to allow a complete stranger to pick her up in a Paris bar is not quite as foolish as it seems. But though Paul may be interested in her looks, it is only because Claudia's exotic part-Chinese bloodlines remind him so much of his dead sister Caroline. For Paul needs Claudia to travel with him to Burma as part of his cover. He offers her money in exchange for her companionship.
Travelling together, Paul and Claudia encounter a country where monks rub shoulders with opium traders and warlords debate philosophy. But with so many lies between them, Claudia can't help but wonder if Paul's quest to discover the truth about his sister's death is a cover for more sinister activities...
Praise for Patricia le Roy and The Angels of Russia:
"A sweeping contemporary historical romance ... gripping, surprising ... page-turner" The Times Literary Supplement
Douglas Lindsay
The Cutting Edge of Barney Thomson
Pbk published February 2000 by Piatkus at £6.99
ISBN: 0749931582 Artwork by: Cover design & art direction: Gary Day-Ellison. Cover photo: Colin Thomas
With the press accusing him of every crime since Jack the Ripper (including Don Masson's missed penalty against Peru in 1978), Scotland's most notorious - and misunderstood - serial killer, Barney Thomson, is on the run.
The Holy Order of the Monks of St John seems the ideal hide-out for a sad little Glasgow barber with a fear of small talk. As 'Brother Jacob' he's even managing to keep his hand in with some part-time barbery - even if his legendary creative genius is limited to just three styles (Mike McShane in Robin Hood, Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose and Cadfael.)
Only with the police hot on his trail, Brother Jacob has just discovered that he's chosen the only monastery in Britain that already has its full complement of serial killers!
Praise for the acclaimed author of The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson:
'an impressive debut novel' Sunday Mirror
'Hair-raising' Daily Mail
'enjoyable' Guardian
'Glasgow's answer to Sweeney Todd' Arena
'pitch-black comedy spun from the finest writing. Fantastic plot,
unforgettable scenes and plenty of twisted belly laughs' New Woman
John R. Maxim
Mosaic
Pbk published March 2000 by Piatkus at £5.99
ISBN: 0749931574 Artwork by: Jacket design: Gary Day-Ellison. Jacket photo: Image Bank
The U.S. Government has sanctioned two top-secret scientific experiments, both morally questionable and potentially devastating. These twin covert operations are each part of a dark and sinister agenda: an attempt to use Multiple Personality Disorder to create the perfect assassin.
Major Roger Grayson's uncanny ability to adapt to any undercover situation by becoming seemingly different people makes him the ideal person to evaluate both these projects. But his investigation in to the goings-on behind the electrified gates of the Belfair mental health research facility is leading him to have unsettling doubts about the humanity of these projects ... and about who - or what - he really is .
Jane Waterhouse
Shadow Walk
Pbk published January 2000 by Piatkus at £5.99
ISBN: 0749931248 Artwork by: Cover photograph: Photonica
Garner Quinn and Lara Spangler had vowed to be friends forever. But a week after they'd made their promise sixteen-year-old Lara Spangler was dead, brutally murdered by the one person she should have trusted most - her father. On All Soul's Day, mild-mannered Gordon Spangler had slaughtered brutally his whole family and vanished without a trace.
Garner Quinn has never forgotten the Spangler family. Now a bestselling true crime writer, one too many encounters with violent death have left her insisting she'll never write another book. But when a journalist friend tells her he's seen Gordon Spangler, and then ends up dead himself, Garner is determined to continue the investigation - and finally bring the killer to justice.
Only Spangler will stop at nothing to protect his identity ... and Garner has to hope that she finds him before he finds her!
Jane Waterhouse lives in Fairhaven, New Jersey. Shadow Walk is her first book for Piatkus.
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Jane Waterhouse
Dead Letter
Published January 2000 by Piatkus at £17.99
ISBN: 0749904917
Artwork by: Jacket photograph: © Photonica
Garner Quinn and Lara Spangler had vowed to be friends forever. But a week after they'd made their promise sixteen-year-old Lara Spangler was dead, brutally murdered by the one person she should have trusted most - her father. On All Soul's Day, mild-mannered Gordon Spangler had brutally murdered his whole family and vanished without a trace.
Garner Quinn has never forgotten the Spangler family. Now a best-selling true crime writer, one too many encounters with violent death have left her insisting she'll never write another book. But when a journalist friend tells her he's seen Gordon Spangler, and then ends up dead himself, Garner is determined to continue the investigation - and finally bring the killer to justice.
Only Spangler will stop at nothing to protect his identity and Garner has to hope that she finds him before he finds her!
