New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Century 1998 April-June
File Updated: 01/04/00
New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Century APRIL-JUNE 1998

Suzanne Berne A Crime in the Neighborhood Published April 1998 by Century at £16.99 ISBN: 0 7126 7821 2
Lindsey Davis Two for the Lions Published June 1998 by Century at £15.99 ISBN: 0 7127 7796 8 Artwork by: Cover illustration: Colin Hadly

Lindsey Davis goes from strength to strength ...Two For The Lions is Lindsey Davis' tenth Falco. Lumbered with working alongside reptilian chief Spy Anacrities, Falco has hit upon the perfect plan - offering his services to Vespasian and Titus in conduction the 'great Census' of AD 73 as a tax collector with draconian powers, if he does well, his fee will finally allow him to join the middle ranks and wed long-suffering companion Helena Justina. Meanwhile, Falco is needed to trace a relative who has eloped, and has a crazy plan for finding an extinct herb.
Distracted by the apparent murder of a star man-eating lion, Falco uncovers a bitter rivalry between the gladiators' trainers. When a star gladiator also ends up dead Falco is forced to investigate. The trail leads to north Africa, with Helena Justina and little Julia in tow...

'best of soap opera, violent thrills, pathos, bathes, exquisite scene-setting and humour' The Mail on Sunday
 'As always, Davis is brilliant at conscripting famous stories of classical literature into her own tale, and at the same time turning them upside down. It's no wonder that she's the professional classicists' own favourite' The Independent



John Grisham The Street Lawyer Published April 1998 by Century at £16.99 ISBN: 0 7126 7821 2
The Street Lawyer, John Grisham's ninth thriller, sees him writing at his very best and delivers everything we have come to expect from one of the world's most exciting and successful thriller writers.
Michael Brook is a young ambitious lawyer climbing the corporate ladder fast and is set to become a partner in the law firm Drake & Sweeney in a couple of years. His life revolves around work - he has no time to think of anything or anyone else.
Michael's secure and blinkered world is then turned violently upside-down when he and some of his colleagues are taken hostage by a homeless man and held at gunpoint in the offices of Drake and Sweeney. He and his colleagues survive, but the intruder doesn't. Michael's brush with death forces him to radically reassess his priorities and values. Who was this man? Where did he come from? Michael does some digging and learns that he was a mentally ill veteran who had been in and out of shelters for twenty years. Michael does some more digging and finds a dirty secret, a secret which involves Drake & Sweeney.
So Michael's life takes another dramatic turn - he flees Drake & Sweeney taking a 'top secret' file with him, intending to copy and return it, but he is involved in a car accident and is unable return the file before it's noticed that it has gone missing. Now branded a thief by Drake & Sweeney, Michael finds himself joining a firm of lawyers for the poor and homeless and sets about finding out exactly how Drake & Sweeney could be party to some extremely underhand property dealings, as well as discovering some truths about himself.
Utterly gripping and extremely topical, The Street Lawyer sees the master storyteller very much on top form.
John Grisham's previous novels, A Time To Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury and The Partner, have all been number one best-sellers. Six have been made into blockbusting movies and most recently, The Rainmaker, directed by Francis Ford Coppola which is released this spring.
It was in 1984 that Grisham, three years out of law school saw a case in a courtroom one day that was to inspire him to sit down and write his first novel, A Time To Kill. It took three years of 5am stints before a full day at the office for Grisham to complete his first legal thriller. Eventually, after 25 rejections the book was published and today the going rate for a first edition of A Time To Kill is £3,000. Following the extraordinary success of The Firm, John Grisham gave up his practice to write full time.