The King of Swords - Softcover

Stone, Nick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060897325 ISBN 13: 9780060897321

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2009

Synopsis

Paperback. Pub Date: December 2009 Pages: 576 in Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Miami.. 1981 Cocaine Central Murder Capital. USA. A city about to catch fire. Detective Max Mingus and his partner. Joe Liston. are anticipating a routine murder investigation when they are called to the scene of death at Miami's Primate Park-until the victim's family is found slaughtered. and a partly digested tarot card. the King of Swords. is discovered in the victim's stomach. A trail that's growing bloodier by the hour is leading Max and Joe to the most powerful criminal in Miami: the infamous Solomon Boukman. Few have ever set eyes on the evil. intensely feared enigma. but rumors abound of voodoo ceremonies. dark rites. and friends in very high places. Malevolence is running rampant in a city choking on hatred. rage. and official corruption-as Max races to discover the terrifying truth...

About this title

Product Description:

"One of the brightest new stars in the thriller genre."
--Chicago Sun-Times

Nick Stone's first novel, Mr. Clarinet, took the crime fiction world by storm--winning enthusiastic raves ("Exquisite" --South Florida Sun-Sentinel; "A spellbinding thriller of the highest order" --Chicago Tribune) as well as a Macavity and a CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award. In The King of Swords, Stone brings back Detective Max Mingus in a chilling and mesmerizing "prequel" that combines murder, police corruption, and voodoo black magic. The King of Swords blazes with Miami heat--and it earns Nick Stone a permanent spot in the winner's circle alongside the masters James Ellroy, Dennis Lehane, James Lee Burke, Walter Mosley...and Stephen King.

Review:

Such was the acclaim that greeted Nick Stone’s amazing debut novel, Mr Clarinet, that a curious syndrome soon developed: if you hadn’t read the novel (and claimed to have any interest in the crime genre), you had to say (to all who would listen) ’I really must read Mr Clarinet -- I’ve heard so much about it!’ (preferably said with a pronounced guilty note in the voice). Such people, of course, should do themselves a favour and actually read the book – the sprawling, ambitious Haiti-set phantasmagoria broke new ground in several provocative ways for the crime field. It also introduced troubled detective Max Mingus – a vividly drawn protagonist -- and now here’s King of Swords, not so much a sequel to the debut novel, as a prequel with Max Mingus in his first terrifying encounter with his sinister nemesis Solomon Boukman.

So... the biq question: has Nick Stone matched that jaw-dropping debut?

Initially, this seems a very different kind of book – the setting is the more familiar Miami rather than a surrealistically realised Haiti. But -- relax – this is just as strong and disturbing a book as Mr Clarinet. In fact, those seeking a comfortable read should steer well clear – but if you’re looking for rough-edged crime fiction that will seriously unsettle you (and many of us seek exactly that), then King of Swords does the business -- look no further. And now -- how long do we have to wait for the third Nick Stone novel? --Barry Forshaw

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0060897325
• ISBN 13: 9780060897321
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 576