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Find out moreWilliam Shaw was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, grew up in Nigeria and lived for sixteen years in Hackney. For over twenty years he has written on popular culture and sub-culture for various publications including the Observer and the New York Times. A Song from Dead Lips is his first novel, which is followed by the next in the series, A House of Knives. He lives in Brighton.
In what is promising to be an assured series, Deadland sits as a gripping, fabulous read in its own right. Two 17 year old lads end up in a whole heap of trouble when they steal a mobile phone, meanwhile DS Alexandra Cupidi returns to investigate a severed limb, but without the rest of the body is there actually a murder to investigate? The first in this DS Alexandra Cupidi Investigation series by William Shaw is Salt Lane, with the standalone The Birdwatcher taking place before, but also linking to the series. So there are a couple of recommended stops to make before potentially embarking on Deadland. I just slipped straight into the storyline, I immediately felt at home, there was a fresh feeling of reality and I didn’t question, just read. DS Cupidi is a really strong lead, the relationship with her daughter adding a contrasting note of tension. There is a wonderful balance between the investigations taking place, and the story of Benjamin and Joseph, the links starting to tighten as the story progresses. Dungeness thrusts itself into the story, the social aspects substantial and compelling. Deadland is an absolutely fascinating read, one that I highly recommend and I have chosen it as one of my Liz Robinson picks of the month.
Salt Lane is the start to an assured, intelligent, and fascinating series. Kent as a location broods its way through the story while DS Cupidi is a strong lead. The Birdwatcher is a standalone novel but also links to this fabulous series. Books in The DS Alexandra Cupidi Series: 1. Salt Lane 2. Deadland 3. Grave's End Serial Reader? Check out our 'Fall in Love With a Book Series' collection to find amazing book series to dive in to.
An assured, intelligent, and fascinating series awaits you. Kent as a location broods its way through the story while DS Cupidi is a strong lead.
London, 1968. The Runaway. A young woman is found naked and strangled in an alley in well-to-do St John's Wood. The African. The neighbours would love to pin it on the enigmatic black stranger who has just moved in. The Pariah. Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen is convinced there's more to the case than anyone wants to admit; no-one's listening. The Outsider. In walks WPC Helen Tozer - awkward chatterbox, farmgirl, and the first woman to enter the murder unit - and gives Breen a breakthrough. A Song from Dead Lips is a crime thriller that shows the glorified sixties close-up, as it really was - comfortably sexist, racially prejudiced, class-bound and crawling with corruption.
THE STUNNING FOURTH BOOK IN THE DS ALEXANDRA CUPIDI INVESTIGATIONS FROM ONE OF CRIME FICTION'S FINEST WRITERS A DOUBLE MURDER The naked corpses of Aylmer and Mary Younis are discovered in their home. The only clues are a note written in blood and an eerie report of two spectral figures departing the crime scene. Officer Jill Ferriter is charged with investigating the murders while her colleague Alex Cupidi is on leave, recovering from post-traumatic stress. AN ELABORATE SCAM The dead couple had made investments in a green reforestry scheme in Guatemala, resulting in the loss of all their savings. What is more disturbing is that Cupidi and Ferriter's disgraced former colleague and friend Bill South is also on the list of investors and the Younis's were not the only losers. AN UNLIKELY KILLER Despite being in counselling and receiving official warnings to stay away from police work Cupidi finds herself dragged into the case and begins to trawl among the secrets and lies that are held in the fishing community of Folkestone. Desperate to exonerate South she finds herself murderously compromised when personal relationships cloud her judgement. Pacey, intense and riddled with surprising twists, The Trawlerman shows that deceit can be found in the most unlikely places. The brooding waters of the Kent coastline offer an ominous backdrop for this lively page-turner of corruption, mental health and the complexities of human connection.
'If you're not a fan yet, why not?' VAL MCDERMID 'A superb storyteller' PETER MAY A BIZARRE DISCOVERY An unidentified corpse is found in a freezer in the garage of an unoccupied house. DS Alexandra Cupidi is handed a case that is made even colder by no-one seeming to know or care whose body it is. A HISTORIC CRIME It becomes clear there is a connection between the crime and a skeleton uncovered underneath a housing development of Trevor Grey, a boy who went missing twenty five years earlier. A BURIED LIFE Digging deep into secrets that have long been concealed brings Cupidi to face a deadly conspiracy to hide these crimes. Her investigation is complicated by a secret liaison, a political cover-up and the underground life of Trevor Grey's only friend. With meticulously realised characters and a brooding setting, Grave's End confronts the crisis in housing, environmentalism, historic cases of abuse and the protection given to badgers by the law. The third book in the DS Alexandra Cupidi series confirms William Shaw as one of our finest writers of crime fiction
PEACE IS OUT. REVENGE IS ON. 'William Shaw is one of the great rising talents of UK crime fiction' Peter James 'If you're not a fan yet, why not?' Val McDermid 'An emotional intensity found only in the very best crime fiction' Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year Never forgotten Teenager Alexandra Tozer was murdered on her family's farm. Five years later, her sister Helen will return. Never suspected As soon as DS Breen tracks down the original investigating sergeant, the man goes missing. And so does Helen. Never revealed The only connection between the suspects is the Kenya Emergency - a nightmare that Englishmen prefer to forget. But others remember. Every bloody detail. And when another woman is taken, Breen fears that history - in all its shame and horror - is coming back to haunt them.
'If you're not a fan yet, why not?' VAL MCDERMID 'A superb storyteller' PETER MAY A BIZARRE DISCOVERY An unidentified corpse is found in a freezer in the garage of an unoccupied house. DS Alexandra Cupidi is handed a case that is made even colder by no-one seeming to know or care whose body it is. A HISTORIC CRIME It becomes clear there is a connection between the crime and a skeleton uncovered underneath a housing development of Trevor Grey, a boy who went missing twenty five years earlier. A BURIED LIFE Digging deep into secrets that have long been concealed brings Cupidi to face a deadly conspiracy to hide these crimes. Her investigation is complicated by a secret liaison, a political cover-up and the underground life of Trevor Grey's only friend. With meticulously realised characters and a brooding setting, Grave's End confronts the crisis in housing, environmentalism, historic cases of abuse and the protection given to badgers by the law. The third book in the DS Alexandra Cupidi series confirms William Shaw as one of our finest writers of crime fiction.
***The bestselling William Shaw returns with a thrilling investigation in the unmissable new series*** 'One of the great rising talents of UK crime fiction' PETER JAMES 'If you're not a fan yet, why not?' VAL MCDERMID 'A superb storyteller' PETER MAY YOU CAN RUN The two boys never fitted in. Seventeen, the worst age, nothing to do but smoke weed; at least they have each other. The day they speed off on a moped with a stolen mobile, they're ready to celebrate their luck at last. Until their victim comes looking for what's his - and ready to kill for it. YOU CAN HIDE On the other side of Kent's wealth divide, DS Alexandra Cupidi faces the strangest murder investigation of her career. A severed limb, hidden inside a modern sculpture in Margate's Turner Contemporary. No one takes it seriously - not even the artwork's owners, celebrity dealers who act like they're above the law. YOU CAN DIE But as Cupidi's case becomes ever more sinister, as she wrangles with police politics and personal dilemmas, she can't help worrying about those runaway boys. Seventeen, the same age as her own headstrong daughter. Alone, on the marshes, they're pawns in someone else's game. Two worlds are about to collide. Kent and its social divisions are brilliantly captured in Deadland, a crime thriller that's as ingeniously unguessable as it is moving and powerful.
