Author:Brian Thompson,Margaret Holt
London, 1875. At Lady Cornford's famous soiree (sugared almonds and tittle-tattle) everyone is gossiping about Henry Ellis Margam's latest hit, The Widow's Secret. Only a few people know that one of Lady C's guests, the enigmatic Bella Wallis, is in fact the bestselling novelist. Bella punishes evil-doers by exposing them as thinly-disguised characters in the books she writes under her male pseudonym. Armed with her pen, the handsome Miss Wallis surrounds herself with useful men: the dashing Philip Westland, possibly a government spy; Captain Quigley, Bella's fixer, and his shady assistant, Murch, who can always crack a bone or two when someone needs persuading.
Westland comes to Bella with a problem: his best friend Kennett is smitten by the heiress Miss Mary Skillane. But Mary's father, Sir William is 'an old fraud with a beautiful daughter' and she has been promised to Robert Judd, a vulgar treasure seeker. Mary is due to inherit the Skillane pearls, currently residing in a red lacquer box in a Cornish bank vault. But the pearls it seems were ill-gotten, and as Bella and her band uncover more of the strange business, a new Henry Ellis Margam novel looks set to be written, if Bella can first side-step her own affairs of the heart, and evade a brutal threat to her life...
With a glorious heroine and wicked humour, Brian Thompson lays bare the sexual shenanigans and hypocrisy of Victorian England.
—— John HarveyA virtuoso performance. Deliciously readable, highly polished... Mr Amis has created a quicksilver narrative that grabs the reader and refuses to let go
—— New York TimesNight Train pushes the boundaries of noir almost to the edge of darkness
—— TimeA work of dark romanticism, a tale of possession... prose crackling with wit and invention
—— New York Times Book ReviewCompelling... Night Train is an entertaining take on the American detective novel, a potent cocktail of violence and stylized dialogue flavoured by an unexpected existential twist
—— Globe and MailAmis is arguably the greatest wordsmith living today, tossing of hundred-dollar words like spent matchsticks, with a scalding wit to go with it. Night Train is a tightly crafted and skilled work
—— Winnipeg Free PressColossally cool . . . Captures the essence of Southern California itself: forecast sunny and clear, with an undertow of darkness
—— San Antonio Express-NewsWinslow is a sensational writer
—— Independent on SundayAt a time when many successful crime and thriller writers produce a book a year, Don Winslow stands out. He is one of the best
—— Times Literary SupplementIf you've never read Don Winslow, start now
—— Val McDermidDon Winslow is the kind of cult writer who is so good you almost want to keep him to yourself
—— Ian RankinPatterson is in a class by himself.
—— VANITY FAIR[Patterson's] books don't pussyfoot around when it comes to the villains. These are bad, bad people ... with a lot of intrigue in high places.
—— AL ROKER, The Today Show
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