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Overview
In this hypnotic novel of psychological suspense, a homeless man is found starved to death in the garage of a ritzy London home. The police chalk it up to an unfortunate accident, but a journalist, Michael Deacon, is intrigued. Amanda Powell, a socialite whose wealthy husband vanished five years ago after being accused of embezzlement, is just as interested as Michael in finding out who died in her garage. They have no idea that this simple story will unveil a web of deceit that is an appalling as the people behind it.
A new novel of psychological suspense and terror by the Edgar Award-winning author of The Dark Room. When a homeless man is discovered dead in the garage of a wealthy woman in one of the richest neighborhoods in the world, journalist Michael Deacon's curiosity about the case leads him on a chilling journey into the past. 384 pp. 60,000 print.
Synopsis
In this hypnotic novel of psychological suspense, a homeless man is found starved to death in the garage of a ritzy London home. The police chalk it up to an unfortunate accident, but a journalist, Michael Deacon, is intrigued. Amanda Powell, a socialite whose wealthy husband vanished five years ago after being accused of embezzlement, is just as interested as Michael in finding out who died in her garage. They have no idea that this simple story will unveil a web of deceit that is an appalling as the people behind it.
Publishers Weekly
Sinuous plotting and an ability to bring a large cast of characters quickly to life put Walters's (The Dark Room, 1996) fifth suspense novel in the same ballpark as the work of Ruth Rendell. After describing the discovery in London of the body of a homeless man who called himself Billy Blake, Walters presents two extracts from a book about missing persons-the first of many such inserts from books, articles, letters and faxes that move the story along. Was Billy Blake really James Streeter, a merchant banker who disappeared in 1988 with 10 million? Digging into that question is twitchy, talented magazine journalist Michael Deacon, who is attracted to the coolly enigmatic Amanda Poole, the woman in whose garage the dead body was found-in part because she used to be Mrs. James Streeter. Walters makes Deacon her main focus, depicting a man troubled by family failures but compassionate enough to take in such needy strays as a 14-year-old street hustler who knew Blake and a sexually repressed co-worker who eventually helps bring everything into focus. Walters's prose isn't quite as shapely as Rendell's, but she's a superior storyteller who plumbs psychological depths with an acuity that here, as before, will have readers enthralled. 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo; BOMC main selection; author tour. (Mar.) FYI: Of Walters's five novels, one has won an Edgar Award, one a John Creasey Award and one a Gold Dagger Award.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Sinuous plotting and an ability to bring a large cast of characters quickly to life put Walters's (The Dark Room, 1996) fifth suspense novel in the same ballpark as the work of Ruth Rendell. After describing the discovery in London of the body of a homeless man who called himself Billy Blake, Walters presents two extracts from a book about missing persons-the first of many such inserts from books, articles, letters and faxes that move the story along. Was Billy Blake really James Streeter, a merchant banker who disappeared in 1988 with 10 million? Digging into that question is twitchy, talented magazine journalist Michael Deacon, who is attracted to the coolly enigmatic Amanda Poole, the woman in whose garage the dead body was found-in part because she used to be Mrs. James Streeter. Walters makes Deacon her main focus, depicting a man troubled by family failures but compassionate enough to take in such needy strays as a 14-year-old street hustler who knew Blake and a sexually repressed co-worker who eventually helps bring everything into focus. Walters's prose isn't quite as shapely as Rendell's, but she's a superior storyteller who plumbs psychological depths with an acuity that here, as before, will have readers enthralled. 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo; BOMC main selection; author tour. (Mar.) FYI: Of Walters's five novels, one has won an Edgar Award, one a John Creasey Award and one a Gold Dagger Award.Library Journal
The discovery of a homeless man's body in the garage of a banker's wife leads her-and a journalist interested in the homeless-to find out more about the man. They also reinvestigate the disappearance, years ago, of the banker and a sizable sum of cash. More well-crafted psychological suspense from a master.Kirkus Reviews
Five years after architect Amanda Powell's husband vanishes amid cries of embezzlement, a homeless man calling himself Billy Blake crawls into her garage and, in full view of her well- stocked freezer, starves himself to death. Falling-star journalist Michael Deacon, sent by his muckraking editor at The Street to get a story about the repentant Thatcherite who paid for a stranger's cremation, doesn't manage to make Amanda weep, but he comes away fascinated both by this enigmatic woman—what secrets is she hiding under that handsome exterior? does she think Billy was her vanished husband? or is she trying to expiate his sins by paying for Billy's obsequies?—and by street preacher/petty thief Billy—what demons of his own led him to mortify himself? why did he choose this place to die? who was he before he became a messianic beggar? Deacon buries himself in the story only to see unexpected figures—an underaged street kid Billy had befriended, a lawyer he'd once crossed swords with over euthanasia, a pathologically lonely photo archivist at The Street—surge and squiggle with shocking vitality, like mutating viruses. To get at the truth about Amanda Powell and Billy Blake, Deacon will have to come to terms with an unholy series of surprises about all these figures, including himself.Walters (The Dark Room, 1995, etc.), who's spent too long in Ruth Rendell's shadow, bids fair to break out of the pack with this teasing, impassioned puzzle, which shows her growing and broadening her range with a vitality as alarming as her characters'.