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Between them, the six bestselling
crime and thriller writers calling themselves THE
UNUSUAL SUSPECTS have so far published 75 novels, bumped off 170
victims, won 10 major awards and been nominated for 14 others. Since forming
their group three years ago, they have entertained audiences from Glasgow
to Las Vegas with witty and often controversial observations about why
crime is so intriguing to readers as well as writers.
Appearing at an incredibly diverse range of venues (local libraries and
bookshops all over the world, the Edinburgh Book Festival, the Cheltenham
Science Festival, the 23rd All-Turkey English Literature Conference, as
well as many international crime writing conventions), they have explored
the ins and outs of successful crime writing, revealing what inspires
them and how far they will go to research a story (pretty far, as it happens).To
find out how they cope when it all goes horribly wrong, which of their
characters are based on real people, and what the taboo subjects are that
even these critically acclaimed writers can't - or won't - take on, book
now:
The Unusual Suspects can
provide:
 The drama in library
talks and readings
Sparkling events for
bookshops
After-dinner speakers
Panelists for writers'
festivals
Discussion leaders for
workshops
A wake-up call for lethargic
students
Interviewees for press,
radio, TV and online journalism
Bookings
Individually or in groups of any size, through Michelle Spring
Fax: 0870 051 3061 E-mail: info@unusualsuspects.co.uk
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 Natasher
Cooper
Now concentrating on her Trish Maguire novels, Cooper is expanding her
range all the time. Out
of the Dark (2002) explores financial crime in both opera-loving
circles and inner-city thuggery. A
Place of Safety (2003) investigates the fine art world against
a background of the First World
War. Keep
Me Alive
(2004) looks at the dangers - and violent crime - that can lie behind
the pretty packaging of the food we eat.
In all her work Cooper creates touching characters and relationships that
encapsulate the dilemmas of 21 st-century life. The Times Literary Supplement
puts A
Place of Safety' ahead of most current detective fiction'.
Praise for Natasha
Cooper:
'Cooper is one of the most reliable practitioners of the genre at work
to day, and this is splendid stuff.'
Publishing News
'Complex, suspenseful, character-driven stuff... Trish is a great character,
and this A Place
of Safety is one of her most intriguing cases yet.'
Sherlock Magazine
Trish is cool, clever and charismatic.' Guardian
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 Manda
Scott
If you accept the argument that the Roman invasion of Britain was one of
the most damaging crimes in ancient history, then it follows that Manda
has not abandoned the writing of crime thrillers, but simply
moved back two millennia. Her 4-volume series depicts the life and times
of Boudica, war-leader of the Eceni, who led the revolt against Rome in
AD 60. The first novel, Dreaming
the Eagle, was launched
in spring 2003 and immediately reached the best-seller listings, earring
comparison with Mary Renault's Alexander trilogy, Rosemary Sutcliffe,
and Mary Stewart's evocation of Arthur. The sequel, Dreaming
the Bull, will be released in spring 2004.
Praise for Manda
Scott:
'...a new trilogy to rival The Lord of the Rings. Actually, I think it
will be better. Scott doesn't mess about with Elves. And her Druids are
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really scary.' Jane Jakeman, Scotland on Sunday
'A staggeringly imaginative invocation of Britain's
secret history. Breathtakingly good, it reveals the best and worst in
all of us: Val McDermid
The new Mary Renault... a truly remarkable story...' Publishing
News
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 Laura
Wilson
Wilson's third novel, My
Best Friend, was published to critical acclaim in 2001, and
has now been translated into six languages. Her fourth, Hello
Bunny Alice, appeared in 2003, and her latest book, The
Lover, which is based on the true story of the 'Blackout Ripper'
who
murdered London prostitutes during the Second World War, comes out in June
2004. Her short stories have appeared in The Mail on Sunday, The Sunday
Express and Ellery Queen Magazine, and on Radio 4.
Praise for Laura
Wilson:
'Wilson effortlessly moves into the exclusive RendeII,Walters
and Fyfield club' Maxim Jakubowski, The Guardian
'What's most important about this dark, disturbing book is the considerable
skill with which Wilson tells the story through several
voices. Her portrayals of flawed and dysfunctional people are skin-crawlingly
real' Observer
'...creates a past that is precise and vivid..: Manchester Evening
News
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 Michelle
Spring
Winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Novel of 2002, In
the Midnight Hour is a haunting story of love, loss and obsession,
set partly in Cambridge, and partly on the bleak north Norfolk coast.This
is the fifth story in the series featuring private investigator Laura Principal,
a woman whose long-standing and stormy partnership with Sonny Mendlowitz,
and close relationships with her women friends, puts the lie to the old
image of Pls with lonely lives and dirty macs. Michelle Spring's first non-series
novel, a thriller entitled The Night Lawyer, is due out
in 2004.
Praise for In
the Midnight Hour:
'Finely crafted and effortlessly readable... Elegant, probing,
and as touching - and chilling - as a child's hand to the heart'. John
Harvey
'In
the Midnight Hour has all of Spring's hallmark features -
believable characters, a vivid sense of place, an intriguing social problem,
and all the mystery and suspense you could hope for.'
Peter Robinson
'Spring selects a rich, slow, elegiac voice for her story, one that brings
Cambridge and the East Anglian coast startlingly to life: The
Poisoned Pen
'if you're looking for that elusive creature,
the intelligent novel which entertains, then this is your baby.' Sherlock
Holmes: The Detective magazine
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 Leslie
Forbes
Forbes's stories have appeared recently in the Independent and on Radio
4, and she is working on a play and fourth novel The Amputations and The
Man Who Loved His Wife and a BBC
documentary about the shocking history of... false teeth! The Sunday Times
described her third novel, Waking
Raphael (paperback May 2004), as 'a
sizzling amalgam of corruption and war crime guilt in 1990s Italy'. Booker
Prize chairman John Carey called it' pretty well perfect', one of 12 novels
'that really lit up the day for me when I read them and have stayed in my
mind ever since.'
More praise for Waking
Raphael:
'An exhilarating and very funny book that also manages to be serious about
Italy. A joy from cover to cover.' Joan Smith
'...confirms Forbes as the thriller-readers thriller writer.' The
Guardian
'...all the ingredients one could hope for from a thriller
set in Italy.' The Spectator
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 Andrew
Taylor
Taylor's groundbreaking Roth Trilogy is now published in one volume as Requiem
for an Angel . The third novel in the trilogy, The
Office of the Dead , won the CWA's Ellis Peters Historical
Dagger, as did his most recent novel,
The
American Boy , set in Regency England and
featuring Edgar Allan Poe as a boy. Charles Palliser, author of The
Quincunx, called it 'Absolutely unputdownable... a mystery plot whose
successive surprises are brilliantly handled... a superb evocation of the
period'. Call The Dying , the seventh volume in his Lydmouth
Series set in the 1950s, is due out in September 2004.
More Praise for Andrew
Taylor: '...a wonderful book, richly composed and beautifully
written.' The Times
'Hugely entertaining.' Observer
'...a most artful and delightful book, that will both amuse and chill.'
Daily Telegraph
'Taylor has a gift for grand guignol and grotesquerie.'
Independent on Sunday
Andrew's Web Site: http://www.andrew-taylor.co.uk/
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