Andrew Taylor

Page Updated: 12/07/2004

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Andrew Taylor - Page 2

The Suffocating Night

The Judgement of Strangers

The Lover of the Grave

The Four Last Things

The Mortal Sickness

First British Edition Hodder & Stoughton (1998)

Paperback - NEL (1999)

The Suffocating Night
See Review by H.R.F.Keating - 1996 Cartier Diamond Dagger winner & creator of Inspector Ghote
The Fourth Lydmouth Mystery
When squatters move into a disused military base near Lydmouth, public opinion is divided: do they have a genuine need for shelter or are they merely unpatriotic scroungers and Communist sympathisers? The controversy attracts the attention of Cameron Rowse, a right-wing journalist.
There are other strangers in Lydmouth - a leading Labour MP and the anonymous Man with the Fish. Each has a hidden agenda. When Rowse is found murdered at the Bathurst Arms, only a few hours after his arrival in Lydmouth, Detective Inspector Richard Thornhill has no shortage of suspects. One of them is Philip Wemyss-Brown, editor of the Lydmouth Gazette, friend and employer of Jill Francis.
Once again, Jill and Richard Thornhill pursue the same answers for conflicting reasons. This time, however, there is a difference. Thornhill and Jill Francis have a second problem to solve. And this one is even harder, and far more personal.
Andrew Taylor's new Lydmouth mystery combines beautifully-written, compelling suspense with subtle and deft characterisation and proves him one of our era's most talented crime writers.
'A comparison to P.D.James springs to mind… it is all of life that Andrew Taylor is concerned with' H.R.F.Keating
'Excellent classic mystery.' Lucretia Stewart, Guardian
'Marvellously creepy' Mail on Sunday
'As usual with Taylor's stories, there is more to the puzzle than is immediately apparent. It's another satisfying read in which the characters are as important as the events and the tensions develop naturally, without contrivance.' Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
'Andrew Taylor does not fall into the trap of mistaking drama for melodrama. Nor does he suffer from the insecure urge to say too much… Taylor is the master of the small lives writ large and, in the phrase coined in this era of surly pubs and poor food, he has carved a detective story which is deceptively calm and cool, but really smashing.' Frances Fyfield, Daily Express

Paperback - HarperCollins (1999)

First British Edition HarperCollins (1998)

The Judgement of Strangers
See Review by Liz Lees
See Review by H.R.F.Keating - 1996 Cartier Diamond Dagger winner & creator of Inspector Ghote
The second novel in the Roth Trilogy is the story of David Byfield, a widowed parish priest with a dark past and a darker future. Set in 1970 in a commuter village near London, the novel explores the consequences of Byfield's second marriage.
Roth is not so much a village as a suburban state of mind. But the past clings and still has the power to affect the present. The menopausal Audrey Oliphant, churchwarden and spinster, nurses a hopeless passion for her parish priest. Lady Youlgreave slides towards death in the company of her equally senile dogs, Beauty and Beast. The big house, now a wreck of its former grandeur, has been sold to a pair of hippies, brother and sister, who have their own secrets and their own power to disturb. The vicar's new wife is fascinated by a Victorian poet-priest with local connections - Francis Youlgreave, author of The Judgement of Strangers, opium addict and suicide. And there are the children at the Vicarage: Michael Appleyard, a watchful boy with a taste for Sherlock Holmes, and Rosemary, Byfield's teenage daughter, as beautiful - and as strange - as an angel. Then the murders begin, and the mutilations, and the echoes of past crimes and blasphemies.
Tense, brooding and atmospheric, The Judgement of Strangers is a hugely complex and intelligent novel from the award-winning Andrew Taylor.
Visit Andrew at his own Website for more info
"Tells of dark deeds in a commuter village, where the past is wickedly stirring… Taylor writes well and persuasively' Literary Review
'Complex, with lots of sinister implications… moves the traditional crime novel on to some deeper level of exploration' Independent
"Nostalgic setting, contemporary surprises." Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday
"keeps the reader on edge all the way to the stunning climax." Publishers Weekly
"Tells of dark deeds in a commuter village, where the past is wickedly stirring… Taylor writes well and persuasively." Literary Review
"Taylor is a complex writer with...the admirable goal of trying to move the traditional crime novel on to some deeper level of exploration. " Independent
"Taylor cloaks all the horrid doings in prose as stately and deliberate as Dorothy Sayer's...A superior village mystery that whets the appetite for the promised third volume." Kirkus Reviews
"...the second part of Andrew Taylor's Roth Trilogy, which is being written in reverse order as a way of exploring the creation of a psychopath and, perhaps, the roots of evil...Andrew Taylor has set himself a huge task...the first two [novels in the trilogy] work well, throwing light forward and backwards on to the characters and their behaviour." Natasha Cooper, Times Literary Supplement
"...a magnificent, highly atmospheric novel ... With a sure and expert hand, Andrew Taylor is constructing a major literary edifice..." James Melville, Ham and High
'Taylor is marvellous and devilishly clever' Frances Hegarty, Mail on Sunday
'This author knows precisely how to wield suspense' Independent on Sunday
"Mr Taylor is a sophisticated writer...with a high degree of literary expertise." New York Times Book Review
"Taylor is an excellent writer." The Times
"As Andrew Taylor triumphantly proves...there is still room for excellence." Irish Times
"Taylor is a major thriller talent." Time Out
"There's no doubting Mr Taylor's talent...exciting, readable and thoroughly amoral." Daily Telegraph
"Mr Taylor has his own - unusual - manner of telling." New Yorker
"Taylor is a highly entertaining, crisp and clean writer, skilled in the art of the melodramatic plot twist." Publishers' Weekly
"Like Hitchcock, Taylor pitches extreme and gothic events within a hair's breadth of normality." Times Literary Supplement
"Taylor generates an electric atmosphere..." Daily Mail
"...in the mould of P.D.James and Elizabeth George." Publishing News
"Andrew Taylor is a writer who constantly surprises...his psychological thrillers are compelling studies in character and behaviour that rival Ruth Rendell." The Spectator

First British Edition Hodder & Stoughton (1997)

The Lover of the Grave
See Review by Liz Lees
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
The 3rd Lydmouth Mystery
After the coldest night of the year, they find the man's body. He is dangling from the Hanging Tree on the outskirts of a village near Lydmouth, with his trousers round his ankles. Is it suicide, murder, or accidental death resulting from some bizarre sexual practice?
Journalist Jill Francis and Detective Inspector Thornhill become involved in the case in separate ways and meet at the scene of the crime. They both follow the investigation into the dead man's murky family history and Jill is also drawn unwillingly into the affairs of the small public school where the dead man taught. Meanwhile a peeping Tom is preying upon Lydmouth: Jill has just moved into her own house and is frightened that she is being watched. And there are more complications on a personal level, for both policeman and reporter.
Subtle and atmospheric, The Lover of the Grave is both classic crime and modern suspense, told with all the rich characterisation and strong writing that makes Andrew Taylor so highly and deservedly praised.
Visit Andrew at his own Website for more info
'A comparison to P.D.James springs to mind... it is all of life that Andrew Taylor is concerned with' H.R.F.Keating
'Crime fiction. Who needs anything more? Life, death, plus obedience to the rule of telling (literally) a bloody good story. It can be anything you like. Learned or literary, plain, historical, as intricate as a piece of fine embroidery, a slap-in-the-face social documentary or a wonderful evocation of place.
Andrew Taylor combines the lot. He was given the thumbs up long ago for beautifully crafted, well written narratives combining subtlety, depth and that vital "Oh my God, what the hell is going to happen next" factor which is the driving force of the story-teller. The Lover of the Grave...ends with ruined lives and a cliff-hanger of hope which makes you long to read the next tale.' Frances Fyfield, The Express
'The tensions, both emotional and sexual, that run through this deftly plotted novel stretch the reader's nerves almost to breaking point. Absorbing.' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
'Suspicion falls from suspect to suspect, then artfully slips off to another. Taylor keeps up the suspense until the very end, when both the real killer and the compelling motive are revealed. And, in the process, the chill heart of a society that got it all wrong is equally well exposed.' Donna Leon, The Sunday Times

First British Edition HarperCollins (1997)

The Four Last Things
See Review by Liz Lees
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
"Suffer the little children to come unto me"
Little Lucy Appleyard is snatched from her child minder's on a cold winter afternoon, and the nightmare begins. When Eddie takes her home to beautiful, child-loving Angel, he knows he's done the right thing. But Lucy's not like their other visitors, and unwittingly she strikes through Angel's defences to something both vulnerable and volatile at the core.
To the outside world Lucy has disappeared into a black hole with no clues to her whereabouts... until the first grisly discovery in a London graveyard. More such finds are to follow, all at religious sites, and, in a city haunted by religion, what do these offerings signify?
All that stands now between Lucy and the final sacrifice are a CID sergeant on the verge of disgrace and a woman cleric - Lucy's parents - but how can they hope to halt the evil forces that are gathering around their innocent daughter?
Visit Andrew at his own Website for more info
'Andrew Taylor digs deep to explore the tangled roots of sex, violence and religion. This is a fine thriller, with clues complex enough to tax a Morse. Reginald Hill
'A finely crafted story of suspense...Taylor has established a sound reputation for writing tense clammy novels that perceptively penetrate the human psyche. In The Four Last Things, he goes deeper still. His ingredients are doubt, guilt and moral ambiguity, intermingling with the more usual trappings of crime detection. It is a book which can be read at more than one level. The appetite for the remaining two of the trilogy is firmly whetted' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'A surefire thriller to take your mind off those winter blues' New Woman
'Andrew Taylor is a master of the corrosive passions that fester beneath conventional facades, and this novel showcases his sensitive exploration of human emotions...A tense and shocking psychological thriller' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
'Every parent's nightmare' Family Circle

Paperback - NEL

The Mortal Sickness
See Review by Amanda Caven
When a spinster of the parish is found bludgeoned to death in St John's, the finger of suspicion points at the new vicar, who is already beset with problems. Some parishioners disapprove of Alec Sutton's religious leanings; others disagree with his refusal to sell the church's most valuable possession, the Lydmouth chalice, to pay for urgent repairs. Someone is sending very nasty anonymous letters about him to prominent townsfolk. And now, along with the murder, the Lydmouth chalice is missing.…
An elegant crime novel that will appeal to readers of P D James and Elizabeth George, this is murder writing at its most sophisticated. It combines nostalgia with realism, emotional impact and the strong characterisation of the best of modern crime fiction.
In the second Lydmouth mystery, award-winning Andrew Taylor brings the reader to a fully realised world, a provincial society in disturbing times. A whydunnit as much as a whodunnit, it confirms the promise of his first Lydmouth novel, An Air That Kills. See Review and Visit Andrew at his own Website for more info on The Lydmouth Series.
Visit Andrew at his own Website for more info
'The reader sees inside the pressure-cooker of village life and how it leads to murder and then, as inexorably, to exposure. Very enjoyable' Spectator
"A fine, atmospheric thriller" Daily Mail
"Taylor's remarkable talent shows in his language and his skilful plotting... he follows in the fine... tradition of Agatha Christie - but outshines her with his vivid characterisation. Wicked and wonderful." Yorkshire Post.
"An engrossing blend of whodunnit and whydunnit, The Mortal Sickness is a telling and atmospheric portrait of British Society at a time of turmoil, a fresh reminder to his fans of how gripping and enlightening Andrew Taylor manages to consistently be." Val McDermid, The Manchester Evening News
"Wonderfully subtle" H.F.R.Keating