The Winter Guest

The Winter Guest
W C Ryan
RRP:
NZ$ 36.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 29.59
Trade Paperback
h234 x 153mm - 352pg
6 Jan 2022 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781838771515
Out Of Stock
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9781838771508 UK Hardback $36.00

The drive leads past the gate house and through the trees towards the big house, visible through the winter-bared branches. Its windows stare down at Harkin and the sea beyond . . . January 1921. Though the Great War is over, in Ireland a new, civil war is raging. The once-grand Kilcolgan House, a crumbling bastion shrouded in sea-mist, lies half empty and filled with ghosts - both real and imagined - the Prendevilles, the noble family within, co-existing only as the balance of their secrets is kept. Then, when an IRA ambush goes terribly wrong, Maud Prendeville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan, is killed, leaving the family reeling. Yet the IRA column insist they left her alive, that someone else must have been responsible for her terrible fate. Captain Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and Maud' s former fiance, is sent to investigate, becoming an unwelcome guest in this strange, gloomy household. Working undercover, Harkin must delve into the house' s secrets - and discover where, in this fractured, embattled town, each family member' s allegiances truly lie. But Harkin too is haunted by the ghosts of the past and by his terrible experiences on the battlefields. Can he find out the truth about Maud' s death before the past - and his strange, unnerving surroundings - overwhelm him? A haunting, atmospheric mystery set against the raw Irish landscape in a country divided, The Winter Guest is the perfect chilling read.
Ryan evokes this moody, gothic atmosphere with convincing skill. Harkin is a sensitive, complex character and his quest to solve the mystery is deftly plotted. A treat. * The Times * A haunting, gripping novel . . . hugely evocative, with some absolutely beautiful writing which captures the profound unease of the times and the bleak nature of the landscape. I really loved this book. * Elodie Harper, The Wolf Den * A terrifically atmospheric, gripping novel. * Amanda Craig, author of The Golden Rule * Ryan writes with precision and elegance. . . This is the best historical crime novel set in Ireland I have read. * Literary Review * In 2018, WC Ryan published A House Of Ghosts, a superb period mystery with spooky overtones, and now he returns with an equally engrossing read. A clever whodunnit with a bracing whiff of the supernatural. * Daily Express * A snowflake of a novel: intricate, exquisite, and unlike any other. Here, as in his every book, Ryan once again recalls Graham Greene - the command of plot, the precision of language - but The Winter Guest also finds him summoning the dark-rose spectres of haunted-house classics like The Woman in Black. If Sebastian Faulks and Laura Purcell were to join forces, they might produce a novel like this. . . yet I can' t imagine anyone but WC Ryan shaping it with such imagination, or charging it with such intelligence, or gracing it with such heart. * AJ Finn, international bestselling author of The Woman in the Window * The Winter Guest works superbly on several levels. As a mystery it unfolds in well-constructed, satisfyingly dramatised scenes, with sharp dialogue and an especially nice line in flirtatious banter. Ryan deftly sketches the contours of a society where friends and mortal enemies live at close quarters, and explores those shifting, volatile allegiances with subtlety and nuance. This is a most welcome winter guest indeed, to be greeted by the fire with drink in hand. * Irish Times * A serendipitously timed, impeccably researched and utterly intriguing historical mystery that lays bare the societal fractures caused in Ireland' s fight for freedom. * Irish Independent * Excellent murder mystery/ghost story set during the Irish war of independence and as usual with W. C. Ryan, beautifully written. * Liz Nugent * A beautifully taut and evocative thriller. * Sarah Hilary * Ryan adroitly marshals a dense plot in a thriller that bears comparison with both le Carre and Buchan. William Ryan - writing here as WC Ryan - has a le Carre-like facility with genre. Like le Carre, Ryan' s novels converge at the point where crime fiction, the historical novel and the spy thriller intersect. His Russian crime series, featuring Captain Alexei Korolev of the Moscow Militia, established his reputation as a compelling storyteller. Ryan' s story commands your undivided attention . . . his marshalling of his extremely dense plot is deft and assured . . . and the tension builds to a crescendo that keeps the reader guessing until the final pages. His prose is richly evocative of the historical period. Seriously impressive . . . a ripping yarn. * Sunday Times (Ireland) * Apart from the immaculately paced plot, there' s an aura in this novel that' s quite bewitching, with the dead coming and going like the west wind, wordless but somehow profound. Harkin' s loneliness is so palpable it' s like a solid thing, bringing John Banville' s Quirke and PD James' s Dalgliesh to mind. He is a man mired in darkness but vaguely attempting to reach for some elusive shaft of light. Here' s hoping we encounter him again. * Sunday Irish Independent * Haunting and exquisitely written. Part intricate mystery and part ghost story. This book will stay with me for a long time. * Anna Mazzola * Atmospheric and genuinely eerie, this is an ideal winter read. * Sinead Crowley * Beautifully written, haunting and unmissable. * Cass Green * A master of the dark arts penning spine-tingling ghost stories. Ryan conjures up the perfect winter' s tale. . . Perfectly pitched for the dark nights, The Winter Guest is a multi-layered, twisting turning masterpiece that moves deftly through a claustrophobic miasma of bitter recriminations, divided loyalties, ghostly shadows, deadly deeds, dangerous double-crossing, and thrills that chill to the bone. Entertaining, unsettling and utterly captivating, this is Ryan at his intelligent, storytelling best. Don' t miss it! -- Pam Norfolk * Lancashire Evening Post * Superb . . . an old war and new sectarianism, family division and decay, a love story, murder, layered in with such finesse and skill. I could not put it down. * Elizabeth Buchan * Intriguing, haunting, romantic and beautifully written, I cared as much about the fate of the characters as about the gripping mystery. * Laura Marshall * The horrors of the First World War spill into an Irish countryside aflame with revolution in this superb tale of treachery, murder and divided loyalties. Excellent. * Michael Ridpath, author of The Diplomat' s wife. *
W. C. Ryan is also known as William Ryan, author of The Constant Soldier and the Korolev series of historical crime novels. His books have been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the CWA' s Steel, Historical and New Blood Daggers, the Irish Fiction Award and the Theakston' s Crime Novel of the Year, as well as being published in 18 countries. William lives in London and teaches creative writing at City University.
Status: Indent title, imported to order
ISBN-13: 9781838771515
Published: 6 Jan 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Zaffre
Publisher: Zaffre
Format: Trade Paperback
Height: 234mm
Width: 153mm
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 425g
Pages: 352

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