Awards

• Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction 2010.
• Winner of CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction 2010
• Winner of CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction 2010.

Overview

CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2010! This powerful psychological debut will leave you breathless . . . FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNAP 'Extraordinarily powerful and evocative . . . will leave you breathless.' Daily Mirror VOTED CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR when it was first released, and still the most gripping, powerful thriller debut you will read this year. ___ Steven Lamb is 12 when he writes his first letter . . . to a serial killer Every day after school, whilst his classmates swap football stickers, twelve-year-old Steven digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. His uncle disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery - but his body has never been found. Steven's Nan does not believe her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late - even if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son. But when Steven realises this is an impossible task, he crafts a careful letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored psychopath . . . Readers love Blacklands- 'A dark, gripping story . . . full of tension' ***** 'A truly chilling and disturbing read' ***** 'An intelligent crime thriller that seeps with atmosphere' ***** *Belinda Bauer's pulse-pounding new thriller, EXIT, is out now*

Full Product Details

9780552158848

Table of Contents

Reviews

With this extraordinarily powerful and provocative debut, Belinda Bauer has shifted the boundaries of what makes a truly gripping, terrifying thriller. Imagine Thomas Harris crossed with Kate Atkinson and you still won't be close... Right from the start you know you are reading something both new and with real guts... will leave you breathless -- Henry Sutton Daily Mirror An excellent first novel, with a highly original plot and convincingly clammy atmosphere... Belinda Bauer paces the rising tension with great skill and a confidence rarely exhibited by first-timers. She's a real find The Times This astonishingly assured debut... for once lives up to the hype... genuinely chilling... a psychological tour-de-force about the cruelty of hope and, ultimately, the triumph of innocence Guardian [Bauer's] portrait of the psychopath chills the blood. The reader is fully gripped... Bauer's first novel shows an extraordinary power of imagination and, vital in crime fiction, the ability to create fear and empathy in the reader Independent In this atmospheric debut, Bauer ably paints a convincingly chilling portrait of a child killer, but it is her moving portrayal of a lonely, bullied child with a comfortless life that singles her out as an accomplished writer Daily Mail

&ldquo;Bauer&rsquo;s ability to shift between the perspective of a 12-year-old boy and a middle-age serial killer is brilliant and frightening all at once. . . . [her] debut novel promises to be the first of many good reads.&rdquo;<p> &#8212; The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)

Author Information

Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa and now lives in Wales. She worked as a journalist and a screenwriter before finally writing a book to appease her nagging mother. For her debut, Blacklands, Belinda was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. She went on to win the CWA Dagger in the Library for her body of work. Her fourth novel, Rubbernecker, was voted Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Her eighth novel, Snap, was a Sunday Times bestseller. It was longlisted for the Man Booker prize and voted Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Her books have been translated into twenty-five languages.

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