Bleeding Heart Square

Description

1934, London. When Lydia Langstone flees her abusive husband, a member of the British Union of Fascists, she seeks refuge in the gloomy lodging house of her elderly father. But No. 7 Bleeding Heart Square is home to a dark mystery. Where is Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house, but hasn't been seen for four years? Why does a seedy plain-clothes policeman watch the square so obsessively? And who is sending parcels of rotting hearts to the house? Legend has it that the devil once danced in Bleeding Heart Square, and as Lydia probes further into Miss Penhow's disappearance, she begins to suspect that a sinister presence might still lurk in the shadows . . . 'The period atmosphere is flawless. Taylor simply gets better and better' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Andrew Taylor has long been in the top rank of British crime writers, never disappointing, particularly strong on depth of characterization and moody atmosphere. In Bleeding Heart Square he excels himself' THE TIMES 'Moving, atmosphere and suspenseful' GUARDIAN 'A beautifully written Gothic thriller' RED A MYSTERY BASED ON A TRUE STORY SET IN THE COUNTRY AGE OF CRIME WRITING

Andrew Taylor is the author of a number of critically acclaimed crime novels, including the Lydmouth series, the ground-breaking Roth Trilogy and The American Boy, his bestselling historical novel which was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection. He has won many awards, including the CWA John Creasey Award, an Edgar Scroll from the Mystery Writers of America and the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Daggers (the only author to win it twice). He lives in the Forest of Dean.

There are echoes of Agatha Christie in the complex plot set in 1934, but Taylor's portrait of desperate lives is infused with a sharp sense of class and politics as British society fractures under the threat of a world war * The Times, Top 100 Crime & Thrillers since 1945 * Taylor is the modern master of a very Dickensian underworld... A sense of brooding evil pervades the complex plot, handled with great assurance * Independent * The period atmosphere, as in all Taylor's work, is flawless. He simply gets better and better * Daily Telegraph *