Author:John Grisham
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Never make an enemy of a murderer.
In 1970, the Ford County Times went bankrupt - and to the surprise and dismay of many, was bought by 23-year-old college dropout Willie Traynor. The paper's future was grim, until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Traynor reported all the gruesome details, and his newspaper prospered.
The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courtroom in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Despite his threats, they found him guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
But nine years later, his influential family get him paroled.
And then, one by one, the jurors who convicted him start to fall victim to terrible murders...
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‘A master at the art of deft characterisation and the skilful delivery of hair-raising crescendos' – Irish Independent
'John Grisham is the master of legal fiction' – Jodi Picoult
'The best thriller writer alive' – Ken Follett
‘John Grisham has perfected the art of cooking up convincing, fast-paced thrillers’ – Telegraph
‘Grisham is a superb, instinctive storyteller’ – The Times
‘Grisham's storytelling genius reminds us that when it comes to legal drama, the master is in a league of his own.’ – Daily Record
‘Masterful – when Grisham gets in the courtroom he lets rip, drawing scenes so real they're not just alive, they're pulsating’ – Mirror
‘A giant of the thriller genre’ – TimeOut
An absolute joy to read...the pleasure of One Good Turn lies in the ride, in Atkinson's wry, unvanquished characters, her swooping, savvy, sarcastic prose and authorial joie de vivre.
—— GuardianAtkinson is frequently very funny...while the tone stays light, the plot continues to darken....manages to be that rarest of things - a good literary novel and a cracking holiday read
—— ObserverAtkinson, while having fun with the murder-mystery genre, slyly slips us a muted tragedy
—— Sunday TelegraphOne Good Turn is the most fun I've had with a novel this year
—— IAN RANKIN , GuardianThrillingly addictive...In One Good Turn Atkinson proves quite unique in her ability to fuse emotional drama and thriller...Imagine a Richard Curtis film scripted by Raymond Chandler, both a little enlivened by the collaboration...The mix is embodied by Brodie. Like all good detectives, he is a hero for men and women alike
—— The TimesSimon Kernick writes great plots, great characters, great action.
—— Lee ChildSimon Kernick uses every trick in the book to keep the action breakneck.
—— Time OutPart Wicker Man, part League of Gentlemen... Moody and creepy, with a killer twist
—— Financial Times (Books of the Year)Spine-tingling suspense! S.J. Bolton ups the chills and thrills factor with her compelling blend of ghostly possibilities layered upon very real world crimes
—— LISA GARDNERS J Bolton's frission-generating Blood Harvest is a satisfyingly atmospheric 500-plus pages; a clever synthesis of two sure-fire strategies: the slow burning mystery...and the dark psychological crime narrative.
—— Good Book Guide, Oct 11Ferocious...Cruelly funny and inventive...The book is fuelled by flights of nihilistic wit and by an exuberant contempt for criminals, the law, rednecks, the US healthcare system, the British, anti-Semites and anyone else who happens to be in the way...[Bazell] is clearly a writer, as very few in the field are
—— Sean O'Brien , Times Literary SupplementHip, violent, and funny, Beat the Reaper is a very engaging and furiously fast read
—— therapsheet.blogspot.comJosh Bazell justifies the hype surrounding his debut novel to formulate a clever, imaginative piece tracking 24 hours in the life of the likeable Peter Brown...driven by fast -paced narrative and some neat plot twists that engage the reader's interest to the final page
—— The Press AssociationA ferocious firecracker, ablaze with hilarious one-liners, plot switchbacks, gore, sex and even a James Bond-style tank full of sharks...Josh Bazell manages to make hitman/doctor hero Peter Brown a sympathetic, even lovable leading man of such intensity, he practically drags the reader along by the hair
—— Big IssueIt's the kind of stuff you should roll your eyes at, but it's too much fun to do anything but keep flipping pages to see where Bazell will take Peter next. And there are more pages yet to come, apparently; this is merely the first installment in a planned series, with a Leonardo DiCaprio-led movie also on the way. Read Beat the Reaper now, so you know what all the fuss is about later
—— Bullz EyeMaybe not quite blown away so much as having my jaw drop to the floor on several occasions and having to endure the snap as it reconnected with the rest of my face. Beat the Reaper is like having a bucket of ice cold water poured over you - shocking, invigorating and certain to get your attention - but leaving you shivering and feeling a bit queasy after the initial assault on your senses is over
—— The Truth About BooksHigh octane thriller that moves along at a cracking pace
—— BooksellerFast, fun, furious, fierce...or better yet, stop reading the accolades for Beat the Reaper, open up to page one, and start reading. See you at the cash register
—— Harlan CobenOutrageously funny ... This may be the most imaginative, albeit the most violent and profanity-laden, debuts of the new year ... If you don't like extreme gun violence, blow-by-blow descriptions of surgical procedures performed by doped-up, angry doctors, the lack of care administered by bitter nurses, misdiagnoses and a huge dose of vulgarity, this novel is not for you. If, however, you can take all of the above, you'll be treated to a story that gets at the heart of one man's immense loneliness and heartbreak. Be warned: One of the final scenes reaches new heights for gory. How then, you might ask, does this novel earn its comedic stripes? Bazell, a medical resident at the University of California, brings a Scrubs mind-set to his story and jacks it up to an outrageous level that will never be seen on network TV
—— USA TodayAn unusually talented writer...Genuinely entertaining...The story is so engaging that you don't want to be yanked out of it...Darkly comic...Bazell has a knack for breathing new life into the most timeworn genre conventions....The climax of Beat the Reaper finds Brown locked in a medical freezer waiting for his arch-nemesis to arrive and finish him off. The plan Brown concocts to save himself is the novel's most original flourish. It is also completely outrageous, so much so that I had to stop and think about whether I could really suspend my disbelief. In the end I decided that Bazell had more than earned my indulgence as a reader. If there's a better recommendation for a story than that, I don't know what it is
—— New York Times Book ReviewSuffering from Post-Holiday Stress Syndrome? Dr Josh Bazell has the prescription...he has written the first flat-out entertaining novel of 2009...It's an ingenious premise for a thriller, and Bazell pulls it off...Told with exquisite acerbic humour without sacrificing intrigue or tension...Beat the Reaper only gets better, turn by turn, page by page. Savvy and savagely diverting, it's a Tarantino movie made with Scorsese looking over his shoulder
—— New York Daily News[a] breakneck cross between a hospital drama, "The Godfather" and a Quentin Tarantino film
—— Bloomberg.comA propulsive, savvy read featuring characters both well shaded and shady, this debut thriller by a physician polymath with a BA in writing from Brown also offers the garnish du jour in the form of elaborate and funny footnotes (à la David Foster Wallace). You can prescribe this to fans of Carl Hiaasen and quirky abrasive fiction
—— Library Journal[a] quirky and darkly humourous novel... Beat the Reaper is a wonderfully engaging novel that starts with a full-on beginning and doesn't let up until the end
—— Crimesquad.comThis is the second funniest health care-based fiction to come out of the United States this year after the Republican Party's descriptions of the NHS
—— Daily Telegraph