The Amethysts - Softcover

Delaney, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000649952X ISBN 13: 9780006499527

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1998

Synopsis

A psychological thriller of unremitting power – in theme unlike anything Frank Delaney has written before – the spellbinding tale of modern murders that lead back fifty years to forgotten Nazi atrocities.

Nicholas Newman, a fashionable English architect, is deep in confused mourning for his murdered lover Madeleine when a series of unexplained attacks almost kills him. In his hospital bed, he is approached by Lukas Waterman, Madeleine’s secret protector, who hands him a document chronicling a forgotten Nazi project, the Family Institute – and forces him to relive the horrors of a psychological experiment in which Jewish families, including Madeleine’s, were destroyed from the inside.

As Newman is caught up in the increasingly violent events surrounding the few survivors – known as the Amethysts – he begins an odyssey of terror and self-discovery that may ultimately lead to redemption... or death.

About this title

Review:

‘A compelling novel written with pace, verve and imagination... Without doubt Frank Delaney’s best.’
Mail on Sunday

‘The mix of John Fowles-cum-Ian McEwan turns flammable.’
Guardian

‘Powerful, almost poetic... always intense, emotional and uninhibited. This novel may prove unforgettable.’
Sunday Telegraph

‘Unusually sophisticated, elegantly written, compellingly plotted.’
Sunday Times

‘Inescapably gripping and sinisterly erotic... The Amethysts is taut, tense and full of threatening emotional power.’
Daily Telegraph

‘Brilliant!’
LEN DEIGHTON
‘Mesmerising!’
LIONEL DAVIDSON

From the Back Cover:

'The Amethysts' is a psychological novel of intense power. Frank Delaney uncovers the roots of a great twentieth-century evil through the fractured vision of Nicholas Newman, successful architect and Modern Man. The brutal murder of his lover proves to have a meaning so profound that it dramatically alters Newman’s whole life. New values forced upon his consciousness become the central issues in a riveting novel which draws the reader to the disturbing conclusion, ‘Sometimes only the unspeakable teaches us how to love.’

“The fusillade of shocks, and the crescendo of menace and confusion are contrived brilliantly. Frank Delaney’s new novel cannot fail ... inescapably gripping and sinisterly erotic ... the pace rarely flags. 'The Amethysts' is taut, tense and full of threatening emotional power”
DAILY TELEGRAPH

“Delaney effortlessly hooks the reader ... This mix of John Fowles-cum-Ian McEwan turns flammable”
GUARDIAN

“A compelling novel, written with pace, verve and imagination”
MAIL ON SUNDAY

“A psychological thriller as harrowing as it is absorbing ... powerful, almost poetic prose style ... always intense, emotional and uninhibited. this novel may prove unforgettable.”
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

“An unusually sophisticated thriller ... elegantly written and compellingly plotted”
SUNDAY TIMES

“The action pans across Europe with pace and verve, but all the time resonant with dark undertones ... gripping”
THE TIMES

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 000649952X
• ISBN 13: 9780006499527
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496