King of Swords - Hardcover

Stone, Nick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 071814922X ISBN 13: 9780718149222

Publisher: Michael Joseph, 2007

Synopsis

Miami, 1981. When Detective Max Mingus and his partner Joe are called to the scene of a death at Miami's Primate Park, it looks like another routine ― if slightly bizarre ― investigation. Until two things turn up: the victim's family, slaughtered; and a partly digested tarot card in the dead man's stomach. The King of Swords.

An increasingly bloody trail leads Max and Joe first to a sinister fortune-teller and her scheming pimp son, then to the infamous Solomon Boukman. Few have ever met the most feared criminal in Miami, but rumours abound of a forked tongue, voodoo ceremonies and friends in very high places.

Against a backdrop of black magic and police corruption, Max and Joe must distinguish the good guys from the bad - and track down some answers. What is the significance of the King of Swords? What makes those who have swallowed the card go on a killing spree just before they die? And can Max find out the truth about Solomon Boukman, before death's shadow reaches his own front door . . .

About this title

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

Review:

Praise for Mr Clarinet:

'Terrifying, exhilarating . . . A breathlessly compelling tale of black magic and mystery' Daily Express

'A masterwork, a tour de force . . . crime fiction at its engrossing zenith' Shots

About this edition

• Publisher: Michael Joseph
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 071814922X
• ISBN 13: 9780718149222
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 576