Quiet Dell - Hardcover

Phillips, Jayne Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1439172536 ISBN 13: 9781439172537

Publisher: Scribner, 2013

Synopsis

From one of America’s most accomplished and acclaimed fiction writers, a chilling, spectacularly riveting novel based on a real life multiple murder by a con man who preyed on widows—a story that has haunted Jayne Anne Phillips for more than four decades.

From one of America’s most accomplished and acclaimed fiction writers, a spectacularly riveting novel based on a real-life multiple murder by a con man who preyed on widows— a story that has haunted Jayne Anne Phillips for more than four decades

In Chicago in 1931, Asta Eicher, mother of three, is lonely and despairing, pressed for money after the sudden death of her husband. She begins to receive seductive letters from a chivalrous, elegant man named Harry Powers, who promises to cherish and protect her, ultimately to marry her and to care for her and her children. Weeks later, all four Eichers are dead.

Emily Thornhill, one of the few women journalists in the Chicago press, becomes deeply invested in understanding what happened to this beautiful family, particularly to the youngest child, Annabel, an enchanting girl with a precocious imagination and sense of magic. Bold and intrepid, Emily allies herself with a banker who is wracked by guilt for not saving Asta. Emily goes to West Virginia to cover the murder trial and to investigate the story herself, accompanied by a charming and unconventional photographer who is equally drawn to the case.

Driven by secrets of their own, the heroic characters in this magnificent tale will stop at nothing to ensure that Powers is convicted. Mesmerizing and deeply moving, Quiet Dell is a tragedy, a love story, and a tour de force of obsession and imagination from one of America’s most celebrated writers.

About this title

Review:

"Superb... A brilliant, beautiful novel" (Sunday Times)

"In a brilliant fusion of fact and fiction, Jayne Anne Phillips has written the novel of the year... A compulsively readable story" (Stephen King)

"Absorbing and captivating." (Mark Lawson Guardian)

"A powerful and moving novel." (Jonathan Gibbs Independent)

"Quiet Dell has all the elements of a murder mystery, but its emotional scope is larger and more complex. It combines a strange hypnotic and poetic power with the sharp tones of documentary evidence. It offers a portrait of rural America in a time of crisis and dramatises the lives of a number of characters who are fascinating and memorable." (Colm Tóibín)

"An extraordinary book – the best she has written." (Kate Kellaway Observer)

Book Description:

A chilling, spectacularly riveting novel based on a real life multiple murder by a con man who preyed on widows―a story that has haunted Jayne Anne Phillips since childhood.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1439172536
• ISBN 13: 9781439172537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 445