Tom Bradby
Shadow Dancer
Pbk published February 1999 by Corgi at £5.99
ISBN: 0552145866
Daily Telegraph
'Quite exceptional…a taut, compelling story of love and torn loyalties'
The Times
'A remarkable first novel…Bradby handles the tension with skill to produce a gripping tale'
Irish Independent
'The best book on the northern conflict since Harry's Game…An excellent read on any level'
A knife-edge thriller from a startling new talent.
Colette McVeigh: mother...widow...terrorist. A woman who has lived the Republican cause for all of her 29 years. A woman whose brothers are both heavily involved at senior levels in the IRA, whose husband was killed by the British security forces. A woman who is now an informer for MI5.
Arrested in an aborted bombing attempt in London, Colette is given two choices: talk and see her children again, or stay silent and spend the rest of her life watching them grow up from behind the bars of a prison cell.
Unwillingly she is led to betray her past by her young MI5 handler, David Ryan, who always knew where his loyalties lay. But when he follows Colette to Belfast, those values are quickly sacrificed on the pyre of the province's history. As the peace process gathers pace and Ryan watches Colette put herself in increasing danger to keep her side of the bargain, he realises that his professional integrity is irrevocably and fatally compromised...
Tom Bradby has been a senior correspondent for ITN for more than a decade. As Ireland Correspondent, he covered the unfolding peace process before going on to become Political Correspondent. He then spent three years based in Hong Kong as Asia Correspondent, during which time he was shot and seriously wounded whilst covering a riot in Jakarta. He is now the Royal Correspondent. He is the acclaimed author of Shadow Dancer, The Sleep of the Dead and The Master of Rain.
Frances Fyfield
Blind Date
Pbk published February 1999 by Corgi at £5.99
ISBN: 0552145254 Artwork by: Cover photograph: John Alexander
See Review by
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
'A truly memorable novel, worthy only of superlatives...undiluted brilliance' Marcel
Berlins The Times
'An urgently chilly, stylish thriller...An original plot, challenging themes and a
nicely peculiar protagonist' Ruth Padel Daily Telegraph
'Her knowledge of the workings of the human mind - or more correctly the soul - is
second to none' Ian Rankin Scotland on Sunday
Gerald Seymour
The Waiting Time
Pbk published January 1999 by Corgi at £5.99
ISBN: 0552146056 Artwork by: Cover illustration: John Alexander & Gerald Seymour
The market for thrillers is one of the most competitive in publishing, new names are
launched every year, and while some certainly make an impression, few succeed in
establishing themselves as one of the elite band which dominates the bestseller lists over
and over again.
In 1975, Gerald Seymour's first novel, Harry's Game, made his name as a writer of
first-rate thrillers which combine total authenticity, powerful writing and heart pumping
excitement.
Twenty-two years and sixteen books later, he is at the peak of his profession, writing and
selling better than ever. His last book, Killing Ground, was his most successful
for seven years, spending 10 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list.
The Waiting Time is vintage Seymour. Ten years after the Berlin Wall has come down, Dieter Krause, an ex-Stasi captain is being entertained lavishly at the headquarters of British military intelligence. Times have changed and old enemies must now be treated as friends, particularly if they may have invaluable information. But the sophisticated occasion is embarrassingly ruined when Corporal Tracy Barnes, a clerk who has been asked to help serve drinks, physically attacks the German with a ferocity which belies her size. She has recognized him as the man responsible for the murder of her illicit lover while she was posted in Berlin at the start of her career. What she knows about Krause will destroy his usefulness to the West as an important new contact. But she has no evidence and Krause will go to any lengths to protect his potentially comfortable relationship with his new allies.
Praise for The Waiting Timer:
'Stunning...Seymour is on top form' Mail on Sunday
'Seymour is writing at the peak of his powers... in a class of his own' The Times
'One of the best plotters in the business' Time Out
'One of Britain's foremost pacy thriller writers' Sunday Express
Before turning to writing Gerald Seymour was a familiar figure as one of ITN's
leading 'firemen', reporting from some of the world's most troubled areas. He covered his
first military conflict in Cyprus in 1964 and for the next fifteen years reported from
areas of conflict around the world, from the front-line in South Vietnam, to Aden to
Pakistan to Northern Ireland. He became a specialist in terrorism, reporting on the Basque
campaign in northern Spain, the Red Army Faction in West Germany, the Red Brigades in
Italy, the Angry Brigade in Britain and the worldwide attacks by Palestinian groups. From
1969 he spent a good deal of time in Northern Ireland and this experience formed the basis
of Harry's Game, which was an immediate bestseller and later an acclaimed
television series. With his fiction, Seymour draws upon his journalistic background and
methods and this is what gives his books the intense feeling of authenticity that so many
critics have remarked upon. He researches assiduously and always 'goes to ground' in the
place in question to get the feel of it and to meet the ordinary people whose lives are
caught up in extraordinary events outside their control.
Gerald Seymour lives near Bath.