‘Effortlessly blends the brutal and the tender, the dark and the light. Aector McAvoy is a true original. So is David Mark.’ Mick Herron, author of Dead Lions
DS Aector McAvoy’s brother-in-law Valentine is missing.
In New York City, half the world away.
And the two men he travelled with have just been found in an open grave upstate: one dead, one as good as.
McAvoy doesn’t believe Valentine killed them. He does believe he’s in trouble. And so he follows him to New York, determined to find out what happened.
But Valentine is in more danger than McAvoy could have imagined.
And McAvoy’s walking into it right after him: into the darkness of murder, revenge, and a forty-year-old crime…
DS Aector McAvoy’s brother-in-law Valentine is missing.
In New York City, half the world away.
And the two men he travelled with have just been found in an open grave upstate: one dead, one as good as.
McAvoy doesn’t believe Valentine killed them. He does believe he’s in trouble. And so he follows him to New York, determined to find out what happened.
But Valentine is in more danger than McAvoy could have imagined.
And McAvoy’s walking into it right after him: into the darkness of murder, revenge, and a forty-year-old crime…
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Reviews
Compelling and harrowing
Dark, compelling crime writing of the highest order
David Mark takes McAvoy to the US on a rollercoaster ride into darkness. Brilliantly written and compelling.
Effortlessly blends the brutal and the tender, the dark and the light. Aector McAvoy is a true original. So is David Mark.
Highly entertaining
In McAvoy, David Mark has created a big hero with a huge heart. His skill at weaving threads of light through the darkest fabric has rightly won him a legion of fans who like their crime fiction to be real and compassionate.
McAvoy must be one of the most fascinating fictional detectives out there - a true original. This is an intoxicating brew - Catholicism, travellers, underground fight scenes, the mob - and rumbling through it all like a bear with a blush is DS Aector McAvoy. Superb writing. A truly fantastic read.
More twists and turns than a corkscrew through the eyeball
Praise for David Mark and DEAD PRETTY
To call Mark's novels police procedurals is like calling the Mona Lisa a pretty painting. Beautifully crafted, filled with flashbacks, horror, angst, and chilling detail, this one is his most complex and best yet.
A brilliant read.
Aficionados of the grittiest, most trenchant fare love Mark's copper Aector McAvoy, who customarily moves in a darkly realised Hull.
As with previous books, there are plenty of grim events to balance the warmth which surrounds the leading character.
David Mark has created a true hero for an age of dark deeds and dirty cops. The violence is righteous and the collars hard-won for DS Aector McAvoy, and as his luminous humanity and blazing courage take on the worst Hull can chuck at him, we follow him willingly down the meanest of streets.