David Bowker

Page Updated: 20/09/02

David Bowker

Rawhead

pbk 20 Sep 02

The Butcher Of Glastonbury

by David Bowker

About the Author

Bibliography

British Pbk Original - Macmillan (2002)

Rawhead
A Gothic Gangster Story
Struggling author Billy Dye accepts a commission to ghost the memoirs of Manchester gangster Malcolm Priest. But Priest soon wearies of Billy and his big mouth and hires his favourite hitman to take the writer out. However, the potential killer, `Rawhead’, turns out to be a schoolfriend Billy hasn’t seen for twenty years, so he spares Billy’s life and hides him away instead in an old dark house.
When a furious Priest learns that Billy is still alive, he lays a trap for Rawhead himself, and there begins an ugly contest. As the violence escalates, Billy soon suspects that his old friend is a terrifying psychopath who will literally stop at nothing to protect him.
And when Rawhead starts to take an unwelcome interest in Billy’s writing career, no one in publishing is safe….
David Bowker, voted ‘Manchester Writer of the Year’ by City Life magazine, returns to his native city with a brutally funny novel of murder and revenge. `David Bowker’s writing is poignant, moving and funny, bristling with a new breed of male integrity’ Martin Clunes
‘A perfectly paced rollercoaster ride. If you care about world peace, don’t read this book’ Ra Page

First British Edition Gollancz (1997)

The Butcher Of Glastonbury
In her Glastonbury home, a thirteen-year-old girl discovers the bodies of her family, hacked to pieces by a vicious attacker. Although present in the house at the time of the murders, she saw and heard nothing.
Called in to assist with the investigation, Chief Superintendent Laverne and his partner, DI Savage, find their efforts hampered by the obstructive behaviour of their hosts, and by the interference of visiting FBI agent Angela Roth, recently dispatched to England to study Laverne's less than orthodox working methods.
As the detectives argue amongst themselves, a second family is slaughtered. As before, there are no witnesses to the deed, not a single piece of forensic evidence to point to the killer. While the local police draw their own conclusions, Laverne's own brand of investigative instinct has pinpointed the killer. But he has no proof. All he can do is wait - until the Butcher of Glastonbury returns to kill . . . again.
'Bowker piles on the atmospherics to good effect’ Literary Review

About The Author
Mancunian writer David Bowker now lives in Cambridge.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Rawhead (Macmillan Pbk, 2002) Pbk Sep 02

The Butcher Of Glastonbury (Gollancz, 1997) Vista Pbk 1998

From Stockport With Love

The Secret Sexist (Gollancz)

Death Prayer (Vista)