Deadland - William Shaw

***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.

William Shaw has been shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger, longlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and nominated for a Barry Award. A regular at festivals, he organises panel talks and CWA events across the south east. His books include the acclaimed Breen & Tozer crime series set in sixties London, the newest series featuring DS Alexandra Cupidi, and the standalone bestseller The Birdwatcher. He worked as a journalist for over twenty years and lives in Brighton.

*CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH* Superb . . . Shaw handles diverse plotlines brilliantly, demonstrating his ability to write about contemporary events with keen intelligence
Sunday Times - Joan Smith

*PICK OF THE WEEK* Another clever, thoughtful mystery from one of the best authors of Brit crime fiction's new wave.
Sun

Shaw has made the bleak and inhospitable Kent coastline one of the principal characters in his mysteries . . . Opens spectacularly
Daily Mail - Geoffrey Wansell

Delivering a great sense of place, well-drawn characters and a feisty heroine, this is highly recommended
Irish Independent - Myles McWeeney

A thrilling climax that will keep you guessing until the end
Candis Magazine

Sinister and divisive themes . . . Shaw is a master of characterisation
. . . Totally believable
Sunday Sport - Jon Wise

William Shaw is an expert manipulator of his readers' emotions . . . each new torment provokes readers' sympathies more and more . . . The many stranded drama works, but it is the boys' story that is the most engaging
Literary Review - Natasha Cooper

*Audiobook of the Week* In the inventive and arresting Deadland, the outrageously rich haves of the art world and a pair of hopeless have-nots collide with murderous results . . .Tautly constructed thriller . . . Jasmine Blackborow is exactly the right reader, good at both posh and demotic accents, she does full justice to Shaw's skilfully rounded characterisation.
The Times - Christina Hardyment

*BEST BOOKS OF THE SUMMER* 'When teenagers use a borrowed scooter to steal an iPhone X off a passer-by, the owner will stop at nothing, including murder, to get it back. The result is a superb, haunting, intelligent novel.'
Sunday Times

*BEST THRILLERS OF 2019* 'It's up to DI Alexandra Cupidi
to pull together disparate threads when a drug dealer is shot dead in
a scrapyard and
a severed arm shows
up in an exhibit at
Margate's Turner Gallery.'
Daily Mail