The Old Religion: Dark and Chillingly Atmospheric.

Description

WELCOME TO THE DARK HEART OF CORNWALL . . . 'Waites brings all his storytelling talent and experience to this chilling tale' Lee Child 'One of the very best crime writers we have' Mark Billingham He was running from his past. She was running from her future. Sometimes helping a stranger is the last thing you should do . . . The Cornish village of St Petroc is the sort of place where people come to hide. Tom Killgannon is one such person. An ex-undercover cop, Tom is in the Witness Protection Programme hiding from some very violent people and St Petroc's offers him a chance to live a safe and quiet life. Until he meets Lila. Lila is a seventeen-year-old runaway. When she breaks into Tom's house she takes more than just his money. His wallet holds everything about his new identity. He also knows that Lila is in danger from the travellers' commune she's been living at. Something sinister has been going on there and Lila knows more than she realises. But to find her he risks not only giving away his location to the gangs he's in hiding from, but also becoming a target for whoever is hunting Lila. 'A chilling slice of country noir. Great stuff' Mick Herron 'A superbly atmospheric book full of menace andsecrets' Tom Wood 'Martyn Waites is already crime fiction royalty . . . Tom Killgannon is one of the best new characters in modern fiction. I bloody loved this book' Steve Cavanagh

Martyn was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He has turned his hand to many occupations: market trader, bar manager, stand-up comic and teacher of drama to teenage ex-offenders. He trained at the Birmingham School of Speech & Drama and went on to play both policemen and villains in Inspector Morse, Spender and The Bill. He won the 2014 Grand Prix du Roman Noir Award for his novel Born Under Punches. Following critical success with his Martyn Waites titles, he then enjoyed commercial success with the books written under the pseudonym of Tania Carver.

Waites brings all his storytelling talent and experience to this chilling tale, with results so spectacular I might never go to Cornwall again. Superb * Lee Child * Waites is one of the very best crime writers we have, simple as that. I've been looking forward to this book for a long time and, boy, it was worth waiting for. I don't know if I devoured IT or IT devoured ME . . . * Mark Billingham * Martyn has written another raw, deftly-plotted thriller with a dark heart and a real emotional punch * Simon Kernick * A strong plot, a formidable air of menace . . . a superbly executed cautionary tale about the malevolent force of parochialism * Laura Wilson, Guardian * Reading Martyn Waites is a guaranteed thrill-ride. His characters sing off the page, his plots keep you guessing until the end, and I always read his books in a day. So grab The Old Religion and make Martyn Waites your new religion! * Sarah Pinborough * Authentically spooky, thrillingly atmospheric and unnervingly relevant. It reads like The Wicker man for the Brexit era * Chris Brookmyre * The Old Religion by Martyn Waites does for Cornish tourism what Peter Benchley and Jaws did for swimming in the sea! The Wicker Man meets Get Carter in a tale that straddles both contemporary crime and folk horror to form something entirely unique. This is a terrific book that one hopes will form the basis of a series with Tom KIllgannon at the fore * Stuart Neville * A joyous new series with an adorable hero. Waites has come thundering back with all his talent intact * Alex Marwood * A chilling slice of country noir. Great stuff * Mick Herron * The Old Religion is Martyn Waites at his dark and chilling best, a landmark work of rural noir which tears apart the countryside idyll and exposes just how twisted its bones really are * Eva Dolan * The master of sinister. Prepare to be creeped out * Angela Clarke * One of those books you start reading and feel it envelope you like a second skin, meaning you can't put it down. Deliciously creepy, with a startling evocation of that scary old village with hidden secrets vibe. I loved it. Every word. Superbly written, creepy as hell, and chilling to the bone. I can't recommend it highly enough! * Luca Veste * A superbly atmospheric book full of menace and secrets * Tom Wood * Martyn Waites is already crime fiction royalty. With The Old Religion he has delved into the fears and hearts of disillusioned Britain. Tom Killgannon is one of the best new characters in modern fiction. I bloody loved this book * Steve Cavanagh * An unputdownable read, twisting and turning into the heart of darkness * Rebecca Chance * A compulsive and creepy crime novel, The Old Religion is brilliantly atmospheric and original. It's one of those books you keep saying to yourself - just one more chapter - and then realise you've been up all night. One of the best books I've read this year * Stav Sherez * Deeply unsettling and hauntingly realistic, The Old Religion takes all the things I love in a book and smashes them together - hard * Susi Holliday * I LOVED The Old Religion. I adored the tense, taut prose punctuated with lyricism; the dark and twisting plot; the dance between the main characters * A.K. Benedict, author of The Evidence of Ghosts * The Old Religionis crime noir at its finest. Gritty, claustrophobically tense and deeply emotive - unputdownable! * Steph Broadribb, author of Deep Down Dead * This is a great read - dark and disturbing, like The Wicker Man reinvented for our own troubled times. This is the side of Cornwall you'd rather not see - full of sinister undercurrents - but the result is a novel that's gripping from the first page to its incredibly satisfying climax * Kevin Wignall, author of A Death in Sweden * An excellently woven crime novel, with a captivating setting and a brilliant lead character, from master storytellerMartyn Waites * Ragnar Jonasson * A twisting, atmospheric, scary tale that delves into Cornwall's dark side - ancient and modern - to introduce a terrific new character in troubled cop-in-hiding Tom Killgannon. You won't be finding this one on the Cornish Tourist Board's reading list . . . * Anya Lipska *