Patrick Ganley, détective privé de son état, quitte le Yorkshire et la minuscule Tania Evans (sa logeuse, professeur de tango et plus car affinités) pour se rendre chez un riche bourgeois du sud de l'Angleterre dont la fille a disparu. Adolescente studieuse, Melissa n'avait jamais causé le moindre tracas, mais dans cette affaire les apparences sont trompeuses et les protagonistes très imprévisibles.
Patrick Ganley est bien décidé à débusquer la vérité derrière le pesant silence familial, derrière l'égoïsme, l'inconscience et la perversité. Car au bout du chemin il y a aussi une grande détresse.
Scénariste pour la radio et la télévision, Brian Thompson est l'une des voix les plus originales du roman noir anglais. Sa causticité envers les mœurs décadentes est tempérée par un formidable grain de folie et une rare faculté d'empathie.

L'Echelle Des Anges

A true story of empire set in the Crimea, Sudan, Ceylon and Egypt - beautifully written and shot through with real psychological and historical insight.

 'Victorian Britain, that seemingly most conformist of ages, was in fact teeming with eccentrics. The fabulous Baker Brothers were eccentric in a conformist way for the time: Sir Samuel searched for the source of the Nile; Baker Pasha became leader of the Ottoman army. But it was that epitome of empire, and epitome of the Christian English gentleman, who was the most peculiar of them all: 'Chinese' Gordon is finally depicted as the anarchist he really was as he marched to his death against the Mahdi. It is Thompson's triumph that he gives these characters, straitjacketed first by their time, and then by history, the freedom to dance across the page once more.' JUDITH FLANDERS

 Imperial Vanities is an adventure story in the high tradition, ranging from the Upper Nile, to Ceylon, Egypt and the slave markets of the Balkans. Livingstone, Speke and Burton also make an appearance, with the shadowy and elusive Laurence Oliphant spying from the sidelines. Written with Thompson's masterly touch, this is history at its best.

 'A tale of Empire at its most eccentric. Part biography, part history, part adventure yarn, Imperial Vanities is an ingeniously enjoyable read.' Fergus Fleming

Livres