Bleedout: A Novel - Couverture rigide

'Brady is very good on both the causes of crime and the pain of crime victims, including those cases where the victim is also the criminal [. . . ] BLEEDOUT is an intelligent, honest, often heart-breaking meditation on the American prison system, and the analogies with our own are very clear. It is an indictment of the justic system, and an expose of the nature of crime' THE GUARDIAN
'Brady handles the tensions in both plots with great skill, but the triumph of the book lies in the way in which she develops the two centarl characters. Gruesome but enthralling' TLS 13/5
'A crime novel par excellence - literary, intriguing, and very different . . . continues to surprise until its astonishing climax' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 22/5
'Anyone reading this, unaware of Brady's track record, would assume she was a lifelong pulp-fiction specialist' SUNDAY TIMES 29/5
'Clever and heart-breaking . . . keeps things twenty-first-century with corporate crime, political corruption and a keen, compelling tale of a blind lawyer and the convicted murderer whom he frees from a lifetime in prison. It will turn every assumption you ever had about guilt, innocence and the machinations of our 'civilised' justice system on its head, and still surprise you with the final twist'
'The best book of the year, without doubt, is BLEEDOUT by Joan Brady. I'll challenge anyone who disagrees with me. (Joan Brady is my mother.) A fast-paced, brutal, poignant thriller set in the American Midwest, it should be on everyone's bedside table' Alexander Masters, EVENING STANDARD
I particularly want to highlight a stunning thriller, Joan Brady’s BLEEDOUT’ and in her round-up of the month of publication, she continues: ‘This author has already been a winner with Theory of War (Whitbread, 1993). She has produced a terrifying thriller here that deserves your full support, it’s fantastic’.
Sarah Broadhurst BOOKSELLER paperback preview
'Brady's atmospheric world is always entertaining' TELEGRAPH
'Whitbread winner Joan Brady's first venture into crime works well . . . thoughtful' GUARDIAN
'A mesmerizing, literally un-put-downable, debut thriller' IRISH INDEPENDENT

"Watch your back most
carefully when someone you
trust steps behind you."
Even after Hugh Freyl lost his sight he was invincible. But late one night, in the library of the elite law firm that bears his name, he was beaten to death. The obvious suspect is David Marion, a convicted killer from the inner city. Hugh, the scion of the richest and most influential family in Springfield, Illinois, had orchestrated David's release from prison and outraged his family and friends by making the young man his protégé. Now, in the eyes of Hugh's circle, David's criminal past fits him perfectly for the murderer's role. It makes no sense for David to have killed his teacher, liberator and friend. Yet, if he did not, who did?
With no one to stand up for him, and armed only with the criminal skills he honed in prison and the savage fury of a cornered man, David must fight alone. But is he battling to prove his innocence or to hide his guilt?
In Springfield nothing is what it seems, and the more David struggles to clear himself, the closer he gets to the snake pit of ambition and greed poisoning the social and political fabric of the city. Was Hugh all he appeared to be? Who was he protecting and why? Could this most upright of men have involved his firm in shady financial dealings? To find the answers, David must confront his violent past and the uncertainty of his future.
Unraveling with startling reversals and visceral detail and as mesmerizing as the work of Scott Turow, Bleedout is a tense, psychological tour de force. It is charged with insights into betrayal and jealousy so stark that they call into question the values and presumptions by which we judge others guilty and ourselves innocent.