Author:Craig Russell
Jan Fabel returns to the Hamburg murder squad to track down a horrifying killer... From the pen of prizewinning and bestselling author Craig Russell comes this darkly compelling and horribly prescient thriller full of spine-tingling moments and breathtaking tension. Perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride, James Oswald and Ian Rankin.
'Russell scores equally highly with his atmospheric portrayal of Hamburg and its dark river Elbe, as well as with the intelligence of his plots' - The Times
'A few chapters in and I'm hooked' -- ***** Reader review
'A gritty, enthralling read' -- ***** Reader review
'Couldn't put the book down' -- ***** Reader review
'A cracking good read!' -- ***** Reader review
*********************************************************************
YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT LIES BENEATH THE SURFACE...
Just as a major environmental summit is about to start in Hamburg, a massive storm hits the city. When the flood waters recede, a headless torso is found washed up.
Initially, Jan Fabel of the Murder Commission fears it may be another victim of a serial rapist and murderer. But the truth of the situation is far more complex and even more sinister. Fabel's investigations lead him to a secretive environmental Doomsday cult called 'Pharos', the brainchild of a reclusive, crippled billionaire, Dominik Korn.
Fabel's skills as a policeman are tested to their utmost as he finds himself drawn into an unfamiliar, high tech world of cyberspace, where anyone can be anybody or anything they want.
And he quickly realises that he is no longer the hunter, but the hunted.
Russell scores equally highly with his atmospheric portrayal of Hamburg and its dark river Elbe, as well as with the intelligence of his plots.
—— The TimesThe most defining aspect of Burnside's work aside from its linguistic exactness is the beauty of his prose. Quite simply, he is a wonderful writer. Whatever he is writing always seems real and, considering much of the content of this new novel, that is a considerable asset for any storyteller
—— Eileen Battersby , Irish TimesBurnside allows the ambiguity to remain in a hauntingly memorable book
—— Nick Rennison , Sunday TimesIn this beautifully sustained novel madness, mystery and myth-making collide. Burnside has an eerie attunement to the ineffable nature of existence and the fictions we construct to navigate and explain it
—— Adam O'Riordan , Financial TimesThe novel invites you to view storytelling as akin to madness...In a book that often makes coded reference to itself to provoke serious thought as to what fiction is about, this counts as a joke. Its evasions may discomfit those who like to know exactly where they stand, but those who enjoy being teased as well as spooked should relish an eerie, ethereal novel that alludes to Lewis Carroll and uses methods of Hitchcock and David Lynch
—— Daily TelegraphMemorable, atmospheric and compelling
—— Tim Souster , Times Literary SupplementA beautiful and haunting book...A charming and deeply imaginative novel
—— AestheticaLyrical in his descriptions on the land of the midnight sun
—— Clare Colvin , Daily MailBurnside's prose has been frequently praised for its clarity, poetic sonority and fine cadences. It is certainly so here ... A Summer of Drowning marries philosophical meditation with the gooseflesh verve of a thriller
—— Stuart Kelly , Scotland on SundayBurnside is an accomplished and careful writer. And this is a beautiful book, compelling and strange
—— Margaret Reynolds , The TimesUnsettling, hauntingly memorable tale
—— Sunday TimesWritten with deceptive elegance, riddled with gaps and non sequiturs and a clever travesty of several genres, this is a disturbing, provocative book'
—— Guardian
[A Summer of Drowning] brings an eerie glow to the colours and sounds, flora and foodstuffs of the far north
This is a love story, told in reverse, a haunting tale of youth and lost love, and a poetical thriller.A powerful debut and a distinctive voice
—— Tom HollanderElanor Dymott’s gorgeous debut novel is a murder mystery that’s also a brilliant meditation on love and memory and loss. Like the Robert Browning poems her characters read at Oxford, the book is spooky, lovesick, dark, and lush, its narrator circling obsessively back on the death at its heart
—— Maile MeloyAn irresistible blast of an opening which never disappoints in a journey into a complex knot of intense and ultimately destructive relationships from which the murder that is the dark core ofThis excellent debut novel distills
—— Jon SnowA beautiful, lucid nightmare of a book. A mystery of love and murder that is elegantly written, disturbing, always compelling, and lingers long in the mind
—— Adam FouldsA literary thriller wrapped up in a whodunit love story, Elanor Dymott's debut makes for compulsive reading. The complexity of the plot put me in mind of The Secret History;
it deserves to reach just as wide an audience
Every Contact Leaves a Trace is beautifully paced, from the graphic event at its start through all its shifting possibilities to its strange, logical conclusion. It is a marvelous book
—— Bernard O’DonoghueErudite debut
—— IndependentThis murder mystery...gripped me with unusual force... This novel sucks you in beautifully, and will not let you go
—— Evening StandardThis is a class act which unveils its secrets as tantalisingly as a courtesan
—— John Koski , Daily Mail IrelandWonderfully evocative of Oxford, this is a love story and a mystery that will keep you guessing
—— Good Book GuidePart love story, part murder mystery… Dymott’s novel is ample proof of the literary flair that lurks within some lawyers
—— Alex Wade , The TimesOne of the best books I’ve read this year
—— Edinburgh Evening News