The Master Of Rain

Apr 20, 2025 12:50 PM

Author:Tom Bradby

The Master Of Rain

Shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Thriller of the Year

Shanghai, 1926. A city of British Imperial civil servants, American gun-runners, Russian princesses and Chinese gangsters, where heroin is available on room service and everything is for sale. Exotic, sexually liberated and pulsing with life, it is a place and time where anything seems possible.

For Richard Field, it represents a brave new world away from the past he is trying to escape. Seconded to the police force, his first moment of active duty is a brutal crime scene. A young White Russian woman, Lena Orlov, lies spreadeagled on her bed, sadistically murdered. As he begins to peer through the glittering surface to the murky depths beneath, Field sees a world beyond the glamour of the city's expatriate life - a world where everything has its price, and where human life is merely another asset to barter.

The key to the investigation seems to be Lena's neighbour, Natasha Medvedev. But can Field trust someone for whom self-preservation is the only goal? And is it wise to fall in love when there is every sign that Natasha herself may be the next victim?

In a city where reality is a dangerous luxury, Field is driven into the darkness beyond the dazzle of society to a world where the basest of human needs are met and where the truth seems certain to be a fatal commodity . . .

____________________

Praise for Tom Bradby:

‘Quite exceptional’Daily Telegraph

‘Nigh on impossible to put down’Time Out

‘Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller’ Daily Mail

‘Intrigue of the highest order … Atmospheric and richly entertaining’ Washington Post

‘This feisty, pacey thriller by TV news reporter turned writer Tom Bradby has it all’ Press Association

Reviews

'A moody, murder mystery with all the style of a noir classic'

—— The Mirror

'Nigh on impossible to put down...This intelligent thriller brings Shanghai to life as Gorky Park did for Moscow'

—— Time Out

'Rich, dark, atmospheric, this fine novel captures time and place perfectly. A great crime story that ends up in a place you won't predict'

—— Lee Child

The atmosphere and menace of Twenties Shanghai is brought to vivid life as the backdrop to a gripping tale'

—— Daily Mail

'Master of Rain is that rare thing: a truly epic crime novel, brilliantly researched and superbly executed'

—— John Connolly

'Does for Shanghai what Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles - stylish and cool - debauchery at its most elegant'

—— Time

'Every once in a while a book comes along that combines larger-than-life epic adventure; idiomatic, pungent historical detail and genuine storytelling panache. Tom Bradby's The Master of Rain is such a book, carrying the reader headlong into a breathless tale of double-dealing and murder in 1920s Shanghai...Splendidly evocative writing'

—— Amazon.co.uk

'An immensely atmospheric, gripping detective story with just the right mixture of exoticism, violence and romance'

—— The Times

'Beneath the surface of this clever book, we find a wise, richly layered and utterly convincing portrait of what was the most evil and fatally fascinating of all the modern world's cities. No one has managed to bring Shanghai so alive, in all its ghastly splendour'

—— Simon Winchester

'A vividly set and compellingly readable thriller about corruption in all its forms'

—— Robert Goddard

One of the genre's most enduring heroes. Tough, solitary, righteous and incorruptible, [Reacher] harks back to another great fictional detective, Philip Marlowe.

—— Glasgow Herald

A new Jack Reacher novel arrives as the year's first red-hot beach book...the success of these books rests partly on the big, hulking shoulders of their charismatic hero...one of the most enduring action heroes on the American landscape.

—— New York Times

This haunting, stand-alone novel is a subtler work than Child's previous output and offers a sensitively handled romantic sub-plot to boot.

—— Daily Telegraph

Child presses all the buttons... Another awesome performance

—— Mark Sanderson , The Scotsman

Brings a shock of moral horror that is unprecedented in Reacher novels

—— Toronto Star

Utterly compelling... one of Child's best. He keeps up the lightning pace, great writing and punchy one-liners throughout

—— Daily Express

A contender for top thriller of 2010

—— Sun (Best books of 2010)

A turbo-charged page-flipper: you're on page 300 before you take a breath...Child is a master of distances, spaces and the physics of opposing forces

—— The Scotsman

Previous Article：Sacrifice Next Article：Library of the Dead

Comments

Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.