Archives de catégorie : Crime & Thrillers

« Alex Beer, the new exciting star in the Austrian crime story sky. » Kronen Zeitung

DER ZWEITE REITER/DIE ROTE FRAU/DER DUNKLE BOTE
by Alex beer
Blanvalet

Alex Beer, born in Bregenz, studied archaeology and lives in Vienna. The Second Rider, her first book featuring police agent August Emmerich, was awarded the Leo Perutz Prize and received enthusiastic reviews. After The Red Woman, which was also highly acclaimed, Beer has now published her third crime story featuring investigator August Emmerich. She was also nominated for the Viktor Crime Award initiated by Sebastian Fitzek.

DER ZWEITE REITER

Crime novel, 384 pages, Limes, March 2017
Vienna, shortly after the end of WW I: In the sinister atmosphere of this formerly splendid city, with hunger and destitution reigning, police agent August Emmerich discovers the body of a man who allegedly committed suicide. But August has his doubts, and starts investigating on his own account.

• 13,000 copies sold
• Rights sold to: Italy (Edizioni E/O), US/World Engl. (Europa Editions)
• Sinister and melancholic like Graham Greene’s The Third Man
• Winner of the Leo-Perutz-Prize 2017
“Beer fans out society, skilfully making time into something vivid and putting life into the characters … A historical gap has been filled – and excellently so.” Die Welt

DIE ROTE FRAU

Vienna 1920: While the city is struggling with the aftermath of the war, August Emmerich is at last transferred to the Health and Life department. Yet while his colleagues there are busy with the spectacular murder case of the popular city councillor Richard Fürst, Emmerich and his assistant Ferdinand Winter have to play nanny to the famous actress Rita Haidrich, who is in fear for her life. While on the job, however, they not only discover a dubious connection with Fürst but also get on the tracks of a perfidious murder conspiracy reaching up to the highest circles, and Rita is to be the next victim … « Alex Beer has once again done her research precisely and then seamlessly merged fiction and facts. » FAZ « A crime novel in the best sense of the word: suspenseful, intricate, inscrutable. […] A story that will absolutely overwhelm you. » 5plus Magazin « Beer shines again with her research […] August Emmerich’s new case is even better than his first. » ORF FM4

DER DUNKLE BOTE

« This is what crime literature is about. » ORF

Vienna, November 1920: An unexpected cold spell has destroyed the crops, one man in three is out of a job, and organised crime is booming. But the murder case that has shaken the city surpasses anything ever seen before: a body has been viciously mutilated and is found covered in a layer of ice. Shortly afterwards, a letter claiming responsibility appears.
Detective inspector August Emmerich and his assistant, Ferdinand Winter, investigate – and that is not the only mystery they have to solve, for they still have not tracked down Xaver Koch, the man who has abducted Emmerich’s life partner and has turned out to be a dangerous opponent…

TEMPER de Layne Fargo

A razor-sharp page-turner about female ambition and what happens when fake violence draws real blood.

TEMPER
by Layne Fargo
Scout Press, publication July 2019

After years of struggling in the Chicago theater scene, ambitious actress Kira Rascher finally lands the role of a lifetime. The catch? Starring in Temper means working with Malcolm Mercer, a mercurial director who’s known for pushing his performers past their limits—on stage and off. Kira’s convinced she can handle Malcolm, but the theater’s co-founder, Joanna Cuyler, is another story. Joanna sees Kira as a threat—to her own thwarted artistic ambitions, her twisted relationship with Malcolm, and the shocking secret she’s keeping about the upcoming production. But as opening night draws near, Kira and Joanna both start to realize that Malcolm’s dangerous extremes are nothing compared to what they’re capable of themselves.An edgy, addictive, and fiendishly clever tale of ambition, deceit, and power, Temper is a timely, heart-in-your-throat psychological thriller that will leave you breathless.

« Toying with the line between victim and villain, real life and fantasy, TEMPER revels in its mind games, delivering twist after twist as it races toward a Shakespearian climax. The final page will leave you gasping. » – Amy Gentry, author of Last Woman Standing.
“TEMPER alternates narrators between Kira and Johanna and builds a sense of suspense that will keep readers guessing, literally until the last page. Fargo’s first novel features complicated female characters and will be well received by fans of Gillian Flynn and Tana French.” – Booklist

With an announced first print run of 75,000 copies, TEMPER is a Publishers Marketplace Spring/Summer 2019 Buzz Book and a Lead Title for Simon & Schuster, with the support of S&S President and Publisher Jonathan Karp.

DOG ROSE DIRT de Jen Williams

A standalone, chilling thriller about a woman who discovers her late mother had been secretly corresponding with a serial killer for decades.

DOG ROSE DIRT
by Jen Williams
HarperCollinsUK , Publication 2021

When prodigal daughter Heather Evans returns to her family home, it’s for an unhappy reason: her mother Colleen has killed herself, and Heather must pick up the pieces. Sorting through her mother’s belongings Heather makes an alarming discovery – stacks and stacks of carefully preserved letters from the notorious serial killer Michael Reave. The Red Wolf, as the press dubbed him, has been in prison for over twenty years, serving a life sentence for the gruesome and ritualistic murders of several women across the country, although he has always protested his innocence. The police have had no reason to listen, yet Heather isn’t the only one to suddenly have cause to re-examine the Red Wolf murders – the body of a young woman has been found, dismembered and placed inside a tree, the corpse planted with flowers. Just as the Red Wolf once did. What did Heather’s mother know? Why did she kill herself? And with the monstrous Red Wolf safely locked inside a maximum security prison, who is stalking young women now? Teaming up with DI Ben Parker, Heather hopes to get some answers for herself and for the newest victims of this depraved murderer. Yet to do that, she must speak to Michael Reave herself, and expose herself to truths she may not be ready to face. Something dark is walking in the woods, and it knows her all too well.
Ideal for those who read BLACK EYED SUSANS or THE CHALK MAN, as well as fans of Mindhunter and the Ted Bundy tapes.
Jen Williams is an award-winning, very well-reviewed fantasy writer, but this is her debut thriller.

US de A.F. Carter

For readers of Gillian Flynn and Tana French comes a twisty, thrilling suspense novel about a woman with multi-personality disorder who is accused of murdering her father

US
by A.F. Carter
The Mysterious Press, Spring 2020

It’s not enough that Carolyn Grand endured a horrific childhood that sent her father to jail for thirty years. It’s not enough that she was given to a foster care family who pushed her over the edge. It’s not enough that five Carolyn Grands are forced to share a single body. It’s not enough that Carolyn Grand spent years in two psychiatric hospitals, or that she was fed psychotropic drugs that left her little more than a zombie. It’s not enough that her psychologist considers her a play toy, or that her current course of therapy has been forced on her by a medical review board with the power to re-commit her. It’s not enough that all five Carolyns struggle every day to remain independent, to pay the rent, to put dinner on the table, to put clothes on their backs. It’s not enough that the unreformed and unrepentant father who destroyed Carolyn’s childhood, newly released from prison, has once again thrust himself into her life.
Carolyn Grand now has to defend herself against a charge of murder.

A.F. Carter lives, works and writes in New York City.

BLIND de Christine Brand

His world is dark. He is blind. But he has heard her scream – and his senses have never yet deceived him

BLIND
(Blind)
by Christine Brand
Blanvalet, March 2019

Nathaniel hears a scream, then he is cut off. He has just been speaking to a woman on the phone. The anonymous app Be my Eyes connected the two and the woman has been helping Nathaniel choose the right shirt. Nathaniel may be blind, but the scream sounded unmistakable. What if something has happened to the woman? Nathaniel is certain of one thing: a crime must have been committed. Yet no one believes him, there is no proof, no clues. Together with a friend, journalist Milla, Nathaniel sets out to look for the truth. What he doesn’t realise is that for the woman he could be her only chance – or her doom…

Christine Brand is an editor of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a reporter for Swiss television and a crime reporter. Her time in court and her research and reports on police work have given her deeper insights into the world of justice and criminology. BLIND is her debut novel.