Peter May - Page 1
Hardback
Hodder & Stoughton
(2004) |
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Chinese Whispers
Terror is a pleasure. Murder is a passion. Death is a game
My knife’s so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance.
His victims are young, beautiful and viciously mutilated.
He calls himself the Beijing Ripper.
Li Yan, the head of Beijing’s serious crime squad, has been put in the spotlight. His bosses, the media and the terror-stricken public are demanding a fast result. American pathologist Margaret Campbell is invited to perform an autopsy on one of the victims and her results send shockwaves through the investigation.
Then Li begins receiving personal letters from the killer, and his life and career start falling apart. The need to uncover the Ripper’s identity becomes paramount if he is to save himself and his family from ruin.
Peter May’s terrifying new China thriller pits Li Yan and Margaret Campbell against an unscrupulous foe who could prove to be their deadliest enemy yet.
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First British Edition Hodder & Stoughton (2003) |
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The Runner
A top Chinese swimmer kills himself on the eve of an international event shattering his country’s hopes of victory against the Americans. An Olympic weightlifter dies in the arms of his Beijing mistress - a scandal to be hushed up at the highest level. But the suicide was murder, and both men’s deaths are connected to an inexplicable series of ‘accidents’ which has taken the lives of some of China’s best athletes.
In the fifth of Peter May’s suspenseful China’ thrillers, Chinese detective Li Yan and American pathologist Margaret Campbell are back in Beijing confronting a sinister sequence of murders which threatens to destroy the future of international athletics.
Li finds himself in charge of what could be his last investigation for the Beijing Police. Hampered by uncooperative officials, dogged by a vindictive rival for his job, his only hope of a breakthrough is a champion runner, the sole member of the Chinese athletics team who seems willing to talk. But she will only talk to Margaret Campbell -and now the runner has disappeared.
As Li’s enemies take their chance to destroy his career, and shadowy’ figures seem hellbent on victory at any cost; finding the missing runner seems to be the only way to save his job, his relationship with Margaret and the lives of more young athletes.
| Paperback - Coronet (2002) |
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First British Edition Hodder & Stoughton (2002) |
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Snakehead
In the fourth of peter May’s acclaimed China thrillers, American pathologist Margaret Campbell finds herself back on home soil, only to be faced by a truck full of dead Chinese and an unavoidable confrontation with her past.
Beijing detective Li Yan, now based at the Chinese embassy in Washington, is dispatched to find out how his fellow countrymen suffocated in a sealed refrigeration unit in southern Texas - only to find himself face to face with the woman who walked out of China, and his life, to return to the US.
Tasked to work together again to find out who is behind the 100 million-dollar trade in illegal Chinese immigrants which led to the tragedy in Texas, they discover that the immigrants were unwitting carriers of a deadly cargo.
And still wrestling with the demons of their past, Li and Margaret find themselves racing against time to defuse a biological time-bomb that threatens to wipe out not only their future, but that of humankind.
'… the investigation is absorbing, and the outcome a satisfactory (scrupulously trailed) surprise' Gerald Kaufman, Scotsman
'Well-researched departmental rivalry and an interracial love story turn what could have been crass exploitation into something that touches real fears' Chris Petit, The Guardian
'A spell-binding and frighteningly realistic tale' Aberdeen Evening Express
'Fast and exciting… highly topical… an entertaining read that will also give its readers food fro thought' Irish Times
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First British Edition Hodder & Stoughton (2000) |
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| Paperback - Coronet (2001) |
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The Killing Room
The Killing Room was selected by The Bookseller as one of the "best original titles in hardback" for December 2000, and was released to huge critical acclaim. The macabre discovery of the bodies of eighteen young women in a mass grave in Shanghai brings Li and Margaret together for a third investigation - this time in an extraordinary city that provides a compelling vision of a future China. The fact that the victims appear to have been subjected to "live"
autopsies, leads them both through a medical labyrinth of unparalleled horror.
'A fantastic story with a really brilliant ending' Radio Scotland: Cover Story
'Raw, like sushi, and recommended' Publishing News
'Another pacy, page turning experience that will keep you up at night racing through' SopSmart.com
'a fascinating series, although this book, with it's detailed autopsy of the dismembered victims, is not for those with weak stomachs' Sunday Telegraph
| Paperback - Coronet (2000) |
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First British Edition Hodder & Stoughton (2000) |
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The Fourth Sacrifice
See Review by
Cath Staincliffe
- Author of the highly acclaimed Sal Kilkenny Mysteries set on the Mean Streets of Manchester
The Fourth Sacrifice brings Margaret Campbell and Li Yan together again to investigate a series of ritual beheadings in Beijing. The overwhelming attraction that nearly destroyed them both when they first met is still there. But now Margaret has another admirer - a brilliant, charismatic American TV archaeologist. And Li has a family tragedy that demands all his heart. But the closer they come to the truth behind the murders, buried deep in the heart of the Cultural Revolution, the more dangerously close they come to a killer who is prepared to sacrifice anyone to conceal it.
'Pulse-pounding prose… a masterwork of sheer momentum' The Herald
'an impressive and ingenious second novel' amazon.co.uk
About The Author
Peter May, winner of the Scottish Young Journalist of the Year Award in 1973, went on to become a television screenwriter, creating three major TV series - The Standard, Squadron and the Gaelic-language drama serial, Machair. He has published seven novels; The Reporter, based on the BBC TV series, The Standard; Fallen Hero, a novelisation of the Granada TV series of the same name; Hidden Faces, a political thriller set in Brussels (published as The Man With No Face in the U.S.); and The Noble Path, a very human story played out amidst the ruins of Pol Pot’s Cambodia. The first of his China novels, The Firemaker, a scorching thriller set in contemporary Beijing, resulted from extensive research in China where he received unprecedented access to the Chinese police. The sequel, The Fourth Sacrifice, was published in hardback and paperback in 2000, and the third in the series, The Killing Room, came out in hardback in December 2000 and paperback in May 2001. He is married and lives with his wife, writer Janice Hally, in rural Argyll, Scotland, and in France.
Peter May spent six months in Beijing and travelling across China as part of his research for the books and continues to visit regularly. He also gained unprecedented access to the normally Chinese police force, due in part to his friendship with Commissioner Wu He Ping, a former policeman from Beijing. Peter’s trips to China have also provided him with a wealth of stories – from drinking competitions with Shanghai detectives to banquets where the menu included deep fried scorpions encrusted in ants. (He is a keen cook, and does all the cooking at home, specialising in Chinese dishes.)
Peter also discovered that many crime writers in China are policemen, who produce their own magazine of short stories every two months, called The Woodpecker. This may be due to the fact that young police officers take classes in Western crime fiction - Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie are favourites. Peter is an honorary member of the Beijing Chapter of the Chinese Crime Writers’ Association.
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
Chinese Whispers
(Hodder & Stoughton,
2004)
The Runner
(Hodder & Stoughton,
2003)
Snakehead
(Hodder & Stoughton,
2002)
Coronet Pbk Apr 02
( Campbell & Yan)
The Killing Room
(Hodder & Stoughton,
2000)
Coronet Pbk May 01
( Campbell & Yan)
The Fourth Sacrifice
(Hodder & Stoughton,
2000)
Coronet Pbk May 00
( Campbell & Yan)
The Firemaker
(Coronet Pbk,
1999)
( Campbell & Yan)
Chinese Whispers
by Peter May
