Author:Marcus Sakey
It starts with you waking on a Maine beach, naked, half-drowned and very, very cold.
Your name is Daniel Hayes. At least, you think it is. That’s the name on the insurance card you find in the BMW parked near you. How did you get here? And why?
All you remember is a woman’s face. So you set off to the only place you might find her.
But this raises the most chilling question of all: what will you find when you get there?
From Lee Child . . .
"Like any reader, I love old favourites . . . but I love new voices too, and I especially love it when a new voice starts to become an old favourite. It doesn't happen often, but right now it's happening with Marcus Sakey. He's got it all. he writes like a dream, he creates characters exactly like people you know, he scares you, and above all keeps you turning the pages.
But most of all he does the 'what if' thing better than anyone in the business.
'What if' questions power a lot of plots, but Sakey is special. He doesn't just check a box or construct a neat twist for the sake of it. Reading him between the lines, I guarantee he lives this stuff. . . he thinks it through and sweats it out, probably for weeks at a time. I can see him, looking around at all the things he loves, looking at his house, turning and looking at his wife, asking himself, 'What if? What if I had to put all this at risk? Would I? Could I? How would it feel? What would be the effect on me?'
It's that kind of depth and intelligence and passion and emotion that sets Sakey apart. These are not just clever plots. These are real people with night sweats and wide eyes and everything to lose.
The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes takes 'what if' in a new direction and to new heights. Every writer muses, 'What if the reader isn't sure whether the husband killed his wife, or not?' That's a basic whodunit. But Sakey asks, 'What if the husband isn't sure whether he killed his wife, or not?' That's a terrific premise, and it boosts an already-terrific thriller plot into the stratosphere."
Confirms Sakey's place as one of our best storytellers
—— Michael ConnollyA full-throttle thriller
—— New York TimesA brainy, twisty, sometimes twisted mystery - part dazzling California noir, part dark American road trip, part sly psychological thriller-and entirely ingenious
—— Gillian Flynn, author of Sharp ObjectsClever, taut and twisting
—— The TimesShe's a thriller queen... The woman most likely to lead the fightback against the Scandinavian crime-wave
—— Sunday Times (Culture)The most disturbing new talent around
—— Val McDermidBauer is not occupied by writing a "crime story" - although there is a crime at the heart of it - she is more interested in writing a novel
—— Karin FossumFinders Keepers has an enjoyably creepy premise... But it's the book's humour that really shines. Bauer reveals her Gold Dagger-winning writing credentials in her neat skewering of everyday pomposities and her wry asides
—— ObserverBelinda Bauer hit the big time with the excellent Blacklands and continues to explore her theme of West Country cruelty and corruption, balancing the procedural and psychological aspects of crime. Once again she nails the petty grievances, prejudices and loyalties of village life, and shows how some law enforcers operate at the outer edge of competence
—— Financial TimesBauer has established a reputation for plunging her characters into unimaginable gore. Her third novel easily matches her previous efforts, exposing village bobby Jonas Holly...to events unprecedented in British crime fiction. The British countryside has never appeared so alien or so macabre
—— Sunday TimesOne of the leading names in crime fiction
—— Stylist Magazine