Reissue of the first book from the British crime writer whom Ian Rankin would later call 'The Godfather of British Noir'. The hero of this tense thriller has been lying low in the urban decay of south-east London, waiting to be called on for his 'job'. Now his enemies have smoked him out and it is time for him to act. He says he'll stop at nothing - and he means it. Is he a crook or a terrorist? What is he about to do? 'Britain seen through a gun-sight, ' said the Literary Review. This is a book that will keep you up into the small hours.

Underground

John Leighton, owner of a fine estate in the Cotswolds, lives well - when we meet him he is 'warmly encased in leather-lined Le Chameau boots, neat Habicht binoculars slung loose around his neck, and he carries a boxlock Holland and Holland Cavalier shotgun in one hand.' Weekend shooting parties are nothing new to him - but for Leighton this will be the first (and last) to be attended by some friends, some business contacts, his wife's lover, and an undercover London hit-man.

Brace Yourself

Rick Miller, magnat de l'industrie pornographique, et Tony Iles, proprietaire tentaculaire d'etablissements de plaisir, regnent sur la nuit londonienne. Deux types en acier trempe (rital contre cockney), qui preferent s'ignorer. Dans ce climat tendu de mafia, un tournage de film X, avec acteurs blases et sequences bien huilees, va se transformer en scene de crime. La police et Kirsty, une jeune journaliste ambitieuse et amie de la victime, patinent. Au retour d'un restau, Tony Iles visionne mollement un porno produit par le fils de son ennemi, quand son regard se fige: sur son ecran geant, la jeune actrice X sur le point d'etre sodomisee est sa fille, et elle n'a que quatorze ans. Cette legere erreur de casting conduit les deux caids a s'entredevorer. Des lors, quetes et enquetes s'entremelent, policiere, journalistique, sentimentale et familiale, ancrees dans le monde interlope de la pornographie et de la nuit. La frontiere entre la vertu des uns, les vices des autres (et vice et versa) se revelant parfois bien mince. Avec Peindre au Noir, son precedent ouvrage (Fayard Noir), Russell James signait un roman noir contemporain irrigue d'histoire (notamment nazie). Ici, il privilegie une ecriture de l'action. Nerveuse, incisive, subversive, elle lui permet d'eclairer les zones troubles de la nature humaine, comme entre chien et loup, d'ou il semble extraire la moelle meme de ses romans."

Ça ne fait de mal à personne

A comprehensive guide to Charity Gift Books - books in which famous contributors gave their work for free and from which all profits went to charity. Back in the last century (especially in wartime) many of our well-known charities raised money through selling a book - either a lavishly illustrated coffee-table book in which the beautiful pictures were accompanied by written contributions from the famous or, on occasions, something more quirky. In many homes, these books were the most beautiful in the house. Normally, such lovely things would be beyond an ordinary person's means. But not these - and because they usually sold in large numbers, many of them can still be found in second-hand bookshops, at affordable prices. They make a great collection for anyone with a passion for books today. Most are a compilation of full-page pictures from famous artists, short stories by famous writers, specially commissioned poems and pages of sheet music, 'private' photographs (of the famous again), autographs and scraps of facsimile handwriting. Here is an illustrated guide to practically every one of them.

Gift Books For Good Causes

Cité aux multiples facettes, Barcelone déborde de dynamisme. Ses deux mille ans d'histoire combinés à sa joie de vivre méditerranéenne offrent à chaque visiteur une expérience inoubliable. Boutiques, restaurants, Cool Barcelona vous fait découvrir des derniers lieux à la mode, et plus encore. La top mode) Eva Padberg et le photographe de mode Russell James vous livrent quelques conseils exclusifs pour évoluer dans les lieux les plus en vue. Cool Barcelona propose également un chapitre de renseignements pratiques et administratifs des plus complets, comportant une liste d'adresses utiles et une carte de la ville. Cool Barcelona sera votre meilleur compagnon dans cette ville branchée.

Cool Barcelona

Russel James Tome 2

After five years she's back: the girl Nick Chance fell for at school. She went on to university, while he stayed in Bristol and tried to make a career in rock groups. Now he plays sax in a jazz/rock group, Blue Delta, due to play for the first time this year at Glastonbury. But then comes tragedy. When he helps Babette on a 'jaunt' to expose malpractice in a meat-processing plant she is killed in a horrific accident. Or was it an accident?Nick is suddenly a 'person of interest' to the police, to intruders in his flat, to New Age apostles of extended life, to animal rights activists, even to workers at the plant. These activists are not soft-hearted. Their tactics include arson, bombs and death. Nick's quest to find what really happened leads him into the dark and complex world of food politics and a reeking broth of conspiracy, deceit and fraud, all of which comes to a boil the night Blue Delta first mounts the Glastonbury stage. It should be the night that makes Blue Delta, but will it be the night that breaks every dream he had?

She Had To Die

"When beauty's the prizeWhat mortal fears dying?"Tim Hawk plans his assassinations well, rehearsing them with cool detachment, and his professionalism makes him a rising star in Kazan's gang. Hawk's only other interest, an unexpected love for baroque opera, is kept concealed. When Kazan returns with his beautiful bride-to-be, Hawk presents the pair with a macabre wedding present. Other guests are shocked, but Kazan and Irena are intrigued. Then Kazan, fatefully, charges Hawk with protecting his prized young bride - who is half Kazan's age, and much the same age as Tim Hawk. It isn't only Kazan's marriage that is vulnerable. His empire is under siege. As the threats and danger mount, Kazan finds himself betrayed and let down on all sides. The only people he can rely on, it seems, are his wife and the trusted Hawk. Hawk brings in another friend, Cecille, and on Guy Fawkes night, as a full-scale gang war breaks out, these four alone must face the enemy.

My Bullet Sweetly Sings

There are two main threads to the book: a modern crime story and the recollections of an 85-year-old woman with dark secrets in her past. Set during the British General Election of 1997 when Tony Blair swept to power, the story bounces back to the 1930s when another charismatic leader rose in Europe. That story is revealed through flashbacks to the life of a British Nazi sympathiser and her artist sister, both intimates of Hitler and Goering. In 1997, art dealer Gottleisch and his evil assistant Ticky think she has hoarded her sister's valuable paintings, and they are determined to get hold of them. Gottfleisch is clever and gargantuan; Ticky is a physically repellent and pathetic paedophile. They pit themselves against the equally controversial Sidonie, now an 85-year-old recluse. Born into minor aristocracy, mingling with the art set, meeting dark luminaries such as Mosley, Hitler and Hermann Goering - how could she be anything other than a villain? One of the many surprises of this much-praised book is the way the characters confound the reader's expectations. With its background sweep, from the Thirties to Blair's triumphant election victory in the late Nineties, this was the author's most-praised novel:"Ambitious, imaginative, almost-true story of Nazi-loving Brit sisters Naomi and Sidonie Keene, who, in the 1930s, took up with Hitler and Co - genuinely because they saw them as charismatic makers of gem-hard, gem-bright new Europe - and as a result became known as the Traitorous Toffs ... Extremely shrewd mingling of near-fact and fiction, with memories of the Mitfords (Unity actually puts in an appearance) tincturing the narrative ... James really scores when he sticks to his political might-have-been. His dark imaginings are potent, gripping and memorable." - Philip Oakes in The Literary Review"His masterpiece to date, eclipsing much of contemporary British mystery writing with its compassion, meticulous plotting, historical relevance and chilling subject matter. A complex tale of art treasures in which the present has to face the horrors of the past, in particular those of Nazi Germany, this is a courageous and ambitious novel." - Maxim Jakubowski in the Guardian"A terrific, cultured tale of crime for the sake of art, " - Marcel Berlins in The Times"A novel which prompts a dozen questions about our own attitudes to the past. But it reaches further into dark areas of the present, not dissimilar to the darkness in which the fascism of the 1930s was born." - Donald James in Time Out"James cleverly interweaves the past and the present to unfold a sophisticated, chilling story of deceit and betrayal. A thoroughly gripping, multi-layered novel from an acknowledged British master of hard-edged crime." - The Mail On Sunday"This is just a tremendous book, dealing with difficult subjects and issues deftly, sensitively, and thoughtfully. I really hate to use the word 'masterpiece' if it's at all avoidable, but I just don't see how to get around it in this case. There's no other way to describe Painting In The Dark." - Victoria Esposito-Shea, Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder, HandHeldCrime"A mesmerizing mystery thriller that is also a chillingly compelling examination of evil. This is an exceptional book from one of the UK's finest genre writers." - Emily Melton, in a Booklist starred review.

Underground

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