This collection of six stories has been brought together for the first time within one book. Five are set in London, though the first brings some of his London characters out for a day's shooting in the Cotswolds. (This is the story singled out in the Times as 'a splendid country house shocker'.) In this book you'll meet criminals and the women who wait for them, a missing daughter, London lowlife, faded aristocracy - and the only James story to feature a private detective. What more could you ask?

The London Sextet

South-east London gangland meets the alternative lifestyle of a travelling fair. Jet Heywood is a fairground boxer past his prime who, after a street brawl, finds himself nursing a head wound. His brother Scott has long wanted out of his dead-end life as a security van driver. When his van disappears with a two million pound payload Jet doesn't know whether Scott was victim or thief. But Scott's old gang knows - and they reckon Jet knows where he is. They are an evil crew - Gottfleisch, a gargantuan and sinister fence; Ray Lyons, a vicious thug out for revenge; and little Ticky, a paedophile with his own malevolent aims. When Jet decides to take his eight year old daughter with him on the road the travelling fair provides no hiding place. Hounded by press, police and intrusive social workers - and by his brother's determined gang - Jet has to fight outside the ring. This is a dark yet moving thriller from 'one of Britain's most stylish and uncompromising writers', moving from the hard streets of south east London to the last fairground boxing booth in Britain. Some reviews of this book:'His best in ages. Relish the darkness.' - Time Out'Two of the most memorably drawn villains I've come across for quite some time ... A vivid evocation of life on the road with the travelling boxing booth ... An ending that will chill you to the bone.' - Bob Cornwell in CADS.'One of Britain's best Noir writers, producing dark, powerful novels with a distinctive South London setting. In his novels, humour and humanity flourish in strange places, accentuating - and occasionally redeeming - the bleakness of the setting. ... The combination of an honourable loner, a powerful narrative and an interesting specialist background suggests an unexpected parallel: the novels of Dick Francis.' - Andrew Taylor in Tangled Web magazine'James has created an entirely loathsome and creepy pair of criminals (bringing to mind Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in their roles in the Maltese Falcon) who balance the plucky and admirable father-and-daughter team of Jet and Stella.' - Publishers Weekly'Deftly combines chilling suspense and insightful characterization, leaving us both breathless and satisfied after a heart-stopping finale.' - Peter Handel in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Count Me Out

Paul and Fay have little in common. He is well-paid and comfortable while Fay, after breaking up with Roper, her violent boyfriend, has nothing left but her young daughter. On the night Paul rescues her their two worlds briefly touch, like a kiss on a pool table after which the flight of the balls will change. They may meet again or they may continue to bounce off side cushions, skating across green baize, slowing with every bounce, never touching again. Who knows what will happen? With each bounce as the balls skid off in fresh directions, it may be time for another kiss - or for a collision, when all the balls will fly apart. Tucked away in the longboat on the river, Paul, Fay and Emma begin to feel secure - but Roper is an angry, jealous man. He wants her back.

The Break

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.

Painting in the Dark

On the night Parliament burnt down, a child was conceived out of wedlock, a baby was abandoned, and another thrown into the Thames. The year is 1834 and J. M. W. Turner is sketching Parliament in flames. Unnoticed, a hackney cab drives past, heading for a dark alley in London, home to a notorious baby farmer - where the passenger abandons an innocent baby girl. She will end up on the Victorian stage. At the mercy of men she'll trust nobody. Another child is conceived that same night but will never know that the man she loves as a father is not her real parent. She gives up her dreams for him, abandoning the talent she inherited from her artist father - to the disappointment of Dante Gabriel Rossetti who had admired her work when she exhibited at the Royal Academy. Also that night a newborn baby is thrown into the Thames by his forsaken mother, leaving a mystery for those who find his little basket floating down the river, a mystery he will try to solve years later as a journalist. The lives of the three children interweave with those of famous people of the era including Turner, Millais, Holman Hunt and the self-styled greatest historical artist of the time, Benjamin Haydon. Not to mention the intriguing He-Sing who cons the establishment enough to let him meet Queen Victoria at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the year in which the Pre-Raphaelites make their name.

The Exhibitionists

COOL GUIDE : New York

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

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.

The London Sextet

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