Peter Guttridge - Page 1
Hardback
Allison & Busby
(2005) |
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Cast Adrift
Walking the plank suddenly seems like the sensible option when gentle journalist Nick Madrid’s foray into stunt work in a low-budget pirate movie finds him fighting for his life with modern-day pirates (motto: ‘shoot first, you won’t need to ask questions later’), equally ruthless salvage divers intent on looting the loot from the sunken ship of the notorious Captain Kidd, and a whole host of dangerous watery creatures.
Nick and his best friend, Bridget ‘The Bitch of the Broadsheets’ Frost, are in the West Indies working on Blackheart, a musical film biography of the notorious, mass-murdering, raping and pillaging pirate Blackboard. But with the frankly oddball cast and the impossible pairing of ‘low budget’ with ‘film made on water’, it doesn’t take long for their movie stardom ambitions to flounder.
Then, as if the unfortunate Nick didn’t already have enough to deal with, he and Bridget become shipwrecked on an island with the sole surviving member of the gone horribly, horribly wrong Survivor-like TV game show, Cast Adrift. Faced with their biggest danger to date and no way of escape, could this be the end of the intrepid duo?
A hilariously ingenious, laugh-out-loud action-packed crime comedy, Cast Adrift is a must-buy book for new readers and old fans alike. Trust us, you won’t regret it.
‘The funniest crime novel of the year’ Publishing News
‘Agatha Christie on laughing gas’ Colchester Evening Gazette
‘Jokes are delivered with the speed and accuracy of a Gatling gun… loosen the corsets and go along for the ride’ Daily Telegraph
‘The satire is spot on… There’s a pinch of Pratchett, a drop of Hiaasen and a deep affection for the worst of Fleet Street, but the result is all Guttridge’ The Guardian
‘Brilliant one-liners, lightening action, lots of suspense and very funny – self deprecation Madrid is fast becoming my favourite hero’ Good Housekeeping
‘A fast moving, laugh-a-line frolic… we gasp with amazement, excitement and amusement… This book will make you laugh’ Reginald Hill
‘Managed the rare double of making me laugh out loud and wince in sympathy… enormous fun’ Val McDermid
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First British Edition Headline (2001) |
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| Paperback - Headline (2001) |
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Foiled Again
Journalist Nick Madrid isn’t looking for adventure, doesn’t set out to risk his life. All he wants is to write his piece about the controversial sponsorship deal designed to fit fencing to prime-time TV.
But even a man with Nick’s journalistic standards can’t dismiss the death of an Olympic fencer fatally stabbed in New York as an occupational hazard. Nor the sixty-year-old murder in a Lancashire mill town as ancient history. Especially when his own family’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War comes under scrutiny.
Nick’s high risk and hilarious investigation leads him from New York and Florida to the mean streets of - erm - Ramsbottom and the wild Lancashire moors above the ancient, abandoned village of Wycoller. Convinced he’s stumbled into a John Buchan novel - replete with brutal blackshirts, suspect fell walkers, dodgy Brontes anoraks and flirtatious fencers - he wonders if even his indomitable friend Bridget ‘the Bitch of the Broadsheets’ Frost can show him the way home.
Praise for Peter Guttridge’s Nick Madrid mysteries:
‘Few British crime writers can match the outrageousness of their American counterparts but Peter Guttridge is well on his way... The satire is spot on... There's a pinch of Pratchett, a drop of Hiaasen and a deep affection for the worst of Fleet Street, but the result is all Guttridge.’ The Guardian
"Great Fun. A comedy thriller with the quick fire patter of a stand-up gig and twists enough to keep you guessing to the end." Deborah Moggach
'Sparkling... romping good stuff' Daily Mail
'Guttridge's fluid laugh-a-minute style is a joy and I found it quite difficult to put the book down I was so engrossed' Shots
| Paperback - Headline (2000) |
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First British Edition Headline (1999) |
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The Once and Future Con
See Review by
Michael Jecks
When the grave of the legendary King Arthur is discovered in the West Country Nick Madrid and his trusty companion Bridget Frost, the 'Bitch of the Broadsheets’, can't resist going in search of Camelot themselves.
But instead of chivalrous knights they find rival Heritage Industry marketing men willing to go to any lengths to make money from the discovery.
Cue Camelot casinos, Avalon theme parks, medieval Excaliburger banquets and a frenzy of feuding archaeologists as the South West Tourism and Heritage industry go loopy for Lancelot and co.
When Nick does some digging of his own, it's not relies he finds but murder victims. Is there a Camelot-crazy serial killer on the loose? And what about King Arthur himself, who promised to return if
his country needed him? If the bones in the West Country grave are his, who is that bloke on the white horse riding out of the mists of time...?
‘Guttridge has demonstrated that he has precisely the kind of mordant wit and cold-eyed social observation to make his Nick Madrid mysteries de rigueur reading. The dialogue glitters with the sheen of a Billy Wilder screenplay and the plotting has a machine like precision that holds the reader with a glittering eye… [in Once and Future Con] the slice of his scalpel remains as painfully acute as eve... acerbic end beguiling.’ The Good Book Guide
’Peppy plotting is Guttridge’s stock in trade’ The Times
‘Great gags’ The Telegraph
‘Be warned - expect lots of sniggering and no conversation until the book has been read cover to cover.’ Shots
‘An extremely likeable hero... Agatha Christie on laughing gas.‘ Colchester Evening Gazette
'A plot that engages and amuses to the end' Crime Time
'One of Guttridge's best tales, sharp as the teeth of the ever-lurking piranhas' Yorkshire Post
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First British Edition Headline (1998) |
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| Paperback - Headline (1999) |
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Two to Tango
See Review by
Michael Jecks
Nick Madrid finds himself up the proverbial creek without a paddle when he's dispatched to South America to report on a Rock Against Drugs Tour. As if very big spiders, piranhas and a tiny, spiky fish that swims up a stream of urine to lodge where a man least wants a tiny, spiky fish to lodge aren't enough, he's drawn into the mystery of who is trying to kill larger-than-life rock megastar Otis Barnes.
Nick soon discovers the queue forms on the left. There are the Colombian guerillas pissed off with Barnes because they think the tour isn't political enough; the right wing death squads pissed off with him because they think the tour is too political; and the drug cartels, who are not only understandably pissed off about the principle of the tour but also hate the music. On top of that, there's scarcely anyone on the tour Barnes hasn't drunkenly offended.
Can Nick prevent Barnes's date with death at the final concert, a son et
lumiere extravaganza at Machu Picchu? Not without a little help from a
rather unexpected source...
"Wacky ... Hilarious ....A great read" Minette Walters
'Brilliant one-liners, lightening action, lots of suspense and very funny - self-deprecating Madrid is fast becoming my favourite hero' Good Housekeeping
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First British Edition Headline (1998) |
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Paperback
Speck Press (2004) |
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A Ghost Of A Chance
666 - The Number of The Beast
667 - The Neighbour of The Beast...
New Age meets The Old Religion when journalist and yoga obsessive Nick Madrid is bothered, bewildered but not necessarily bewitched by modern day pagans, satanists and assorted weirdos in the search for a treasure once in the possession of Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast black magician, drug fiend and all round bad egg.
Commissioned by his best friend in journalism - OK, his only friend in journalism - Bridget Frost (aka: the Bitch of the Broadsheets) to spend Walpurgis Night in a haunted place on the Sussex Downs and live to tell the tale (though living to tell the tale hasn't been made an urgent priority) Nick stumbles on a dead man hanging from a tree in the manner of the Hanged Man of the Tarot.
Suspicious things are happening nearby at a haunted manor house turned into a New Age Conference Centre, peopled by druids, pagans and the odd (very odd) Priest of Isis. Then there's the film about Crowley shooting in Brighton's Royal Pavilion, starring an American Method actor convinced he's making a film about Oscar Wilde, and that, further, Oscar Wilde wasn't gay - this without benefit of drugs, mind.
Seances, sabbats, the horse-ride from Hell and a kick-boxing zebra all come Nick's way as he doggedly tracks the hanged man's murderer. But whatever dangers he encounters - often involving the beautiful yoga teacher who keeps him tied up in knots about their affair - he never forgets his personal journalistic credo: when the going gets tough ... just go
'In A Ghost of A Chance, Peter Guttridge has a lot of fun with the traditional English whodunnit ... poking fun at everyone and everything from Hollywood to Tantric Yoga. I enjoyed the book immensely, and as a bonus also learned how to really piss off a masochist actress. Should make anyone smile, with the possible exception of New Agers, pensioners, devil worshippers and method actors.' Ian Rankin
‘My advice is to buy this excellent book and make Peter Guttridge rich’
Crime Time
‘Brilliant’ Shots Magazine
‘Ghostbusters meets Ghost-bonkers. Guttridge writes like he's been smoking dodgy ectoplasm. This is a brilliant devil-may-care-so-don't-let-him-catch-you romp through the dark side. A fresh, stimulating new talent.’ Peter James
About The Author
Sussex-based Peter Guttridge was born in Burnley, Lancashire and educated at Oxford and Nottingham Universities. A freelance journalist specialising in literature, film and comedy he has written for all the quality national newspapers and magazines including the Independent, The Times and the Telegraph. Currently he writes a monthly column for the BBC's Bookcase website. He also writes about - and doggedly practises - astanga vinyasa yoga. The Once And Future Con is his latest novel (with apologies to T H White.)
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
Cast Adrift
(Allison & Busby,
2005)
Jan 05
(Nick Madrid)
Foiled Again
(Headline,
2001)
Headline Pbk Sep 01
(Nick Madrid)
The Once and Future Con
(Headline,
1999)
Headline Pbk Jun 00
(Nick Madrid)
Two to Tango
(Headline,
1998)
Headline Pbk Jun 99
(Nick Madrid)
A Ghost Of A Chance
(Headline,
1998)
Headline Pbk Nov 99
(Nick Madrid)
No Laughing Matter
(Headline,
1997)
Headline Pbk 1997
(Nick Madrid)
Cast Adrift
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by Peter Guttridge
