Fiction Archives - Duckworth Books

A Splintering

An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition

‘Smart and gripping – I read it in one sitting. Tara is a glorious creation, crackling with life and aspiration and sensuality’ Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire

‘A lacerating novel by a writer of great insight and deep compassion’ Mohsin Hamid, author of The Last White Man

In a village in rural Pakistan, Tara is waiting and watching. The smell of dung and dust hangs over her world. She is desperate to leave the petty life of the village and escape the iron grip of her violent, unpredictable brother. Marrying a middle-class accountant allows her to escape to the capital, but she soon finds that life as a respectable housewife is not sufficient either. She wants what the rich mothers at her children’s school have. She wants what their husbands have. But can she truly shake her past? And what of the menacing spectre of her brother, a reminder of the threads that tie her to the life she left behind?

Set against a hypnotic, oppressive backdrop of political violence and natural disaster, A Splintering traces the class struggle of a woman stuck between province and metropolis, between motherhood and ambition. Disquieting and utterly gripping, it is an extraordinary achievement by Dur e Aziz Amna, an exploration of a complex and unforgettable character who will risk everything to carve out a life of her own.

A Very French Corpse

AN IMMORTAL FOUND DEAD
AN IMMORTAL RUN THROUGH
AN ANCIENT HERITAGE UNDER THREAT

The death of a 16-year-old, dressed as an ‘Immortal Knight’ and having taken a fatal overdose, proves a perplexing case in the ancient city of Tours. Juge d’instruction Matthieu Lombard is brought in to lead the investigation.

When the adolescent’s death is followed a few weeks later by the gruesome murder of a firebrand author, Lombard senses a malign coercive force behind the two fatalities, one that succeeds in challenging his own loyalties and assumptions.

What is it that is nagging at Lombard, locked away in the past? What soon becomes clear is that this game is beyond roleplay. It is deadly.

The third book in the gripping new crime series from The Times-bestselling author.

Dead Behind the Eyes

‘An engrossing, slickly plotted policier that will leave you wanting more’ TOM BENJAMIN, author of the Daniel Leicester mysteries

A HEADLESS MAN. A MISSING GIRL. A LIFE RULED BY SECRETS.

When a decapitated body washes up on the banks of the River Loire in the ancient city of Tours, the reluctant juge d’instruction Matthieu Lombard is brought in to lead the investigation.

But when Lombard’s young niece appears, the inquiry changes course. Suddenly immersed in another world – one of eco-terrorism, bio-medical research, French aristocracy and the violent forgotten underbelly of society – Lombard begins to make unexpected connections.

Can the brutal murder of a lonely man really be justified by a noble cause? Or are good intentions hiding darker motives, more cynical and more deadly?

The second book in the gripping new crime series from The Times-bestselling author of Death and Croissants

I’ll Be the Monster

‘From the moment I read the opening of I’ll Be The Monster I was gripped. An ingenious premise, backed up with pitch-perfect dialogue, arresting scenes, and a caustic humour… one of our most promising emerging writers‘ Sophie Mackintosh, author of Cursed Bread

The college bars were shuttered. Parties banned. Suicide watch was the new normal. And yet, outside, the air was sweet. Trees exploded in white and pink. Birds sang through long, pastel dusks. When I think of that time, I think of pale skin and outrageous blossoms. I think of choices.

A homicidal couple embarks on a luxury holiday to save their marriage.

After years of secrets and self-restraint, they’ve reached breaking point. But three days into the trip, they run into Benny, an acquaintance from their Cambridge days. And Benny is desperate to reminisce about a time – and a person – they would rather forget.

Darkly funny and razor-sharp, I’ll Be The Monster follows a dangerous game of cat and mouse as it plays out under the stifling heat of the Mediterranean sun. From a major new talent in literary fiction, this gripping debut is a love story about the worst people you know – and of what happens when a change of heart occurs too late.

The Man Who Didn’t Burn

A KILLER. A SAINT. A TOWN FULL OF WHISPERS

When an English expat is brutally murdered, his charred corpse left on a Loire Valley hillside, the police turn to juge d’instruction Matthieu Lombard to find the killer.

Instead, Lombard discovers a wealth of secrets, grudges and feuds in the idyllic town of Saint-Genèse-sur-Loire. He begins to suspect that the remaining members of the Comité des Fêtes know more about the death than they are letting on.

But rather than towards an arrest, each clue he uncovers seems to point in one, unexpected direction: Joan of Arc. Is the answer to the murder hiding in the barroom gossip of the Lion d’Or? Or in another century altogether?

The thrilling new crime series from The Times-bestselling author of Death and Croissants

Layer Cake

Layer cake (n): a metaphor for the murky layers of the criminal world.

Smooth-talking drug dealer X has a plan to quietly bankroll enough cash to retire before his thirtieth birthday. Operating under the polished veneer of a legitimate businessman, his mantra is to keep a low profile and run a tight operation until it’s time to get out.

When kingpin Jimmy Price asks him to find the wayward daughter of a wealthy socialite who’s been running around with a cokehead, he accepts the job with the promise that after this he can leave the criminal world behind with Jimmy’s blessing. Oh, and he needs to find a buyer for two million ecstasy pills acquired by a crew of lowly, loud-mouth gangsters, the Yahoos. Simple enough, until an assassin named Klaus arrives to scratch him off his list, revealing this job is much more than it seems at first.

From the glitz of the London club scene of the 1990’s to the underbelly of its criminal world, Layer Cake is the best in British crime fiction.

Viva La Madness

Hiding out in the Caribbean until the heat dies down from his last job, X is thinking it’s time to ditch the resort life and calls up his old friend Morty to plot his return to London.

But he’s hardly stepped off the plane when his associates, Sonny King and Roy ‘Twitchy’ Burns, get on the wrong side of a feuding Venezuelan drug cartel on the hunt for a sensitive package. Suddenly he’s thrown into a stand-off between rival mobs and with so many players in the game it’s tough going making out who wants to cut him a deal and who’s trying to kill him.

Darkly comic, fast-paced and full of twists Viva la Madness is packed with sex, scams, drugs and enough dirty money to fill a few offshore bank accounts.

Staying On

A late in life coming-of-age story…

Retired expat, Tony Metcalfe, is going through a three-quarter-life crisis. Viva España, his bar in a mountain village beyond Spain’s Costa Blanca, is failing. Tony started the bar for the English post-war babies who retired early on good pensions – the por favors, as the Spanish call them – flocking to the dream of wine, rest and sun around the pool. But now their retirement paradise is shadowed by Brexit: the pound has fallen, pensions are frozen and the property crash happened long ago.

Tony wants to move back to enjoy the remainder of his life in his childhood home, but his tenacious wife Laney wants to stay in the happy valley and forget about England and the dark, unresolved feelings it provokes in their marriage. Sod it – he couldn’t go home even if he tried; nobody would buy an ailing bar during a recession.

But Tony’s luck is about to change when his son Nick arrives for a surprise visit with his self-possessed wife, Jo, and their son. With the extra help, Tony thinks things are on the up, but Jo has brought along more baggage than just their family’s suitcases.

Staying On is a compelling story of little and greater family secrets come to light and what it means to find home, wherever you are.

World War Z

It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginning of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse.

Faced with a future of mindless man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the ten-year fight against the horde, World War Z brings the finest traditions of journalism to bear on what is surely the most incredible story in the history of human civilisation.

Read the original cult novel that propelled the zombie genre into the mainstream – now a blockbuster film and game.

The Zombie Survival Guide

Don’t be reckless with you most precious asset – life. This book is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now without your even knowing it.

It covers everything you need to know, from how to understand zombie behaviour to survival in any territory or terrain.

The Zombie Survival Guide offers complete protection through proven tips for safeguarding yourself and your loved ones against the living dead.

It might just save your life.

An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition

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