Author:Barbara Vine
Asta's Book is a classic double-detective story by crime master Barbara Vine
For a good, absorbing, well-told story, you could hardly better the unveiling of Asta's secret' Sunday Times
It is 1905. Asta and her husband Rasmus have come to East London from Denmark with their two little boys. With Rasmus constantly away on business, Asta keeps loneliness and isolation at bay by writing a diary. These diaries, published over seventy years later, reveal themselves to be more than a mere journal. For they seem to hold the key to an unsolved murder and to the mystery of a missing child. It falls to Asta's granddaughter Ann to unearth the buried secrets of nearly a century before.
'A dazzling domestic thriller' Guardian
'Obsessively readable' Sunday Telegraph
'Engrossing . . . a mixture of biography, true crime and romance people with vivid minor players and red with herrings' Independent on Sunday
'Absolutely enthralling ... the best yet from the Vine/Rendell bureau. Essential reading' Literary Review
'Simply put, Vine is one of the greatest writers ever' Scott Turow
Asta's Bookis a modern crime masterpiece and will be enjoyed by readers of P.D. James, Ian Rankin and Scott Turow.
Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has written fifteen novels using this pseudonym, including A Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet which both won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Her other books include: A Dark Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs; Gallowglass; Asta's Book; No Night Is Too Long; In the Time of His Prosperity; The Brimstone Wedding; The Chimney Sweeper's Boy; Grasshopper; The Blood Doctor; The Minotaur; The Birthday Present and The Child's Child.
Simply put, Vine is one of the greatest writers ever
—— Scott TurowTaylor is the modern master of a very Dickensian underworld... A sense of brooding evil pervades the complex plot, handled with great assurance
—— IndependentThe period atmosphere, as in all Taylor's work, is flawless. He simply gets better and better
—— Daily TelegraphSlick
—— Financial TimesAgain a great read from a master of the story-telling process
—— Irish TimesPacked with menace and the threat of exposure. One of Rendell's most complex plots.
—— The IndependentHer Barbara Vine novels allow [Ruth Rendell] to retain her title as Britain's pre-eminent psychological thriller. A suspenseful and chilling tale
—— The ObserverCharacters are intensely imagined and far from the usual uncomplicated stereotypes of victims and perpetrators. An experience that is both fearful and satisfying
—— The Sunday TimesA strong creation
—— Telegraph.co.ukRiveting and only too plausible account of the downfall of a politician. Brilliant narrative voice. An unsurpassed portrait of a character suffering from low self-esteem, mild paranoia and gradual mental deterioration.
—— The Daily MailOddly exhilarating and liberating. Truly, Baroness Rendell of Babergh is an original talent.
—— The Evening StandardAccomplished and engrossing
—— GOOD BOOK GUIDEJosh 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