The Amethysts - Hardcover

Delaney, Frank

3.5

166 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002255634 ISBN 13: 9780002255639

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1997

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

An astonishing psychological thriller of great force and pace – in theme unlike anything Frank Delaney has written before – the unforgettably powerful tale of modern murders that lead back fifty years to forgotten Nazi atrocities.

Spring 1991: English architect Nicholas Newman, 38, takes a short holiday in a discreet Swiss hotel. He is still deep in confused mourning for his lover Madeleine, murdered with appalling brutality.

After dinner, an elegant and rich Hungarian couple tell Newman of the villa they are restoring in Italy. They show him the photographs, in one of which stands a small amethyst carving of the Eiffel Tower. Concealing his shock, Newman recognizes it as the only object missing when the police inventoried Madeleine’s apartment.

Immediately, Newman’s life is attacked ferociously and inexplicably. Enter Lukas Waterman, the elderly man who was Madeleine’s hidden mentor. He gives Newman a document chronicling a top-secret Nazi installation, the Family Institute, where, at Goebbels’s instigation, Jewish family relationships were destroyed from the inside.

The effect that an evil such as the Holocaust can bring to bear upon all who have merely heard of it, much less experienced it, soon becomes painfully clear, as Newman is forced to relive the horrors of that ghastly experiment – while becoming inextricably caught up in the increasingly violent events surrounding the few survivors.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

‘A wonderful writer.’
The Times

‘A superb storyteller.’
Sunday Express

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 title" may belong to another edition of this title.