Tom Bradby

Page Updated: 15/03/02

Tom Bradby

The Master of Rain

pbk 03 Jan 02

The Sleep of the Dead

pbk 03 Jan 02

Shadow Dancer

and

Books By Tom Bradby

About the Author (Photo by Robin Matthews)

Bibliography

British Pbk Original - Bantam (2002)

The Master of Rain
Tom Bradby first visited Shanghai as ITN's Asia correspondent and became infatuated by this awesome city rising from the ashes of the communist era. "Being there is fascinating, not just because there are cranes and high rises in every direction and the city has a manic energy about it, but because you get glimpses of its extraordinary past," says Bradby.
The Master of Rain explores this extraordinary past, taking us back to the Shanghai of 1926. A city of British Imperial civil servants, American gunrunners, Russian princesses and Chinese gangsters, where heroin is available on room service and everything is for sale. Exotic, sexually liberated and pulsing with life, it is a place and time where anything seems possible.
For Richard Field, it represents a brave new world away from the past he is trying to escape. Seconded to the police force, his first moment of active duty is at a brutal crime scene. A young White Russian woman, Lena Orlov, lies spreadeagled on her bed, sadistically murdered. As Field begins to peer through the glittering surface to the murky depths beneath, he sees a world beyond the glamour of the city’s expatriate life - a world where everything has its price, and where human life is merely another asset to barter.
The key to the investigation appears to be Lena’s neighbour, the mysterious and evasive Natasha Medvedev. But can Field trust someone for whom self-preservation may be the only goal? And is it wise to fall in love when there is every sign that Natasha herself may be the next victim?
In a city where reality is a dangerous luxury, Field is driven into the darkness beyond the dazzle of society to a world where the basest of human needs are met and where the truth seems certain to be a fatal commodity…
‘Beneath the surface of this clever book we find a wise, richly layered and utterly convincing portrait of what was the most evil and fatally fascinating of all the modern world’s cities. No one has managed to bring Shanghai so alive, in all its ghastly splendour’ Simon Winchester

First British Edition Bantam (2001)

Paperback - Corgi (2002)

The Sleep of the Dead
The brutal murder of Sarah Ford and the disappearance of her six-year-old daughter, Alice, shattered the rural serenity of Julia Havilland’s childhood. But these are not the only scars that have resolutely refused to heal. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Mitchell Havilland sacrificed himself on a Falklands hillside in an act of characteristic - but baffling - heroism. When Julia comes home from China fifteen years later, it is to a place of ghosts.
While she awaits the outcome of the inquiry that seems destined to end her short but spectacular career in military intelligence, Julia is drawn back across the landscape of the past to find that it is not just the tortured image of her much-loved father that returns to haunt her. Everything she has ever believed in and lived for has suddenly been called into question, and unless she confronts her demons she will not survive. For there have been other deaths, and the dead will not sleep...
At once a race-against-the-clock thriller and a complex psychological drama, where the memories of the past conflict with knowledge of the present, The Sleep of the Dead is a stunning read, and more than confirms Tom Bradby as one of this country’s foremost thriller writers.
‘The second novel by ITN’s talented young Asia correspondent lives up to the promise of its remarkable predecessor, Shadow Dancer . . . Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller. And his new novel proves it triumphantly. Once again he draws on his experiences as a reporter in Northern Ireland, but this time adds the ingredients of an Agatha Christie thriller with a distinctly contemporary twist: Cracker meets Miss Marple by way of Silent Witness . . . Elegant, spooky, and a compulsive page-turner, The Sleep of the Dead confirms Bradby’s considerable promise as a thriller writer’ Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail
‘A real race-against-the-clock thriller and complex psychological drama’ Irish Independent
‘Torn apart by loyalties and suspicion, the tension gradually mounts as the pieces of the jigsaw finally fit together into a gripping psychological drama’ Choice
‘This second thriller from Bradby confirms him as very much in the know when it comes to matters military . . . Intriguing and emotive, this is a slow-builder that proves to be worth the wait’ The A List in the Mirror
‘A taut thriller’ Woman & Home

Shadow Dancer
Critical acclaim for Shadow Dancer:
‘Tightly controlled thriller ... His knowledge and first-hand experience reporting the Troubles give the setting and characters a gripping authenticity’ Good Housekeeping
’A remarkable first novel ...Bradby handles the tension with skill to produce a gripping tale’ that is at the same time a compelling argument against allowing the culture of killing to take over any cause, however just’ Peter Millar, Times Metro
‘An exceptional first novel. On the surface yet another thriller about the murky world of the intelligence war in Northern Ireland, it is also a compelling, incestuous story of love and torn loyalty in a community and family ravaged by hate and betrayal. There are no cardboard cut-outs here. Tom Bradby succeeds in creating real characters. Far too many novels on this subject take refuge in cliché and caricature - Bradby refuses to. Detail is piled on detail until you find yourself immersed in the Republican ghetto of West Belfast ... The book’s accuracy makes it stand out from almost any other that I have read on the subject. The language, the tension, the funerals, the fear - all are portrayed vividly and correctly’ Sean O’Callaghan, Daily Telegraph
‘This is the best book on the northern conflict since Harry’s Game. . . Shadow Dancer is an excellent read on any level. It scores heavily both as a thriller and an accurate, unblinking look at what is happening right now just a few miles up the road’ Irish Independent
‘Bradby’s chilling and compelling thriller unravels the webs of intrigue that criss-cross Northern Ireland’s political underworld… riveting’ Belfast Telegraph

About The Author
As ITN Correspondent for Asia for four years, Tom Bradby saw the best and worst of that continent. He made the news headlines last year when his leg was shattered by a flare during post-election riots in Jakarta. Tom Bradby joined ITN as a trainee in 1990 and spent 3 years as Ireland Correspondent between 1993-1996, going on to be political correspondent before his move to Hong Kong. A former pupil at Sherborne School, Tom read history at Edinburgh University. He is the author of Shadow Dancer and The Sleep of the Dead. He is married with three children and is currently based in the UK.

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

The Master of Rain (Bantam Pbk, 2001) Pbk Jan 02

The Sleep of the Dead (Bantam, 2001) Corgi Pbk Jan 02

Shadow Dancer Pbk Feb 99