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Swan Song

Swan Song

Summary

Hull, autumn 2005 and private investigator Leo Rivers finds himself at the overheated heart of an inquiry into the savage killing of several young women. Approached by the mother of the chief suspect, he soon discovers not only that this suspect is not involved in the killings, but that several hitherto unconsidered and scarcely credible connections link the murders to a single perpetrator.

In pursuing his case, Rivers has to contend with an ambitious, career-minded Chief of Police, who will stop at nothing to make a name for himself, sacrificing not only Rivers but also his own colleagues along the way.

Set against a backdrop of the Humber and the long and violent destruction of Hull's once-cherished fishing industry, Robert Edric reveals a world of exploitation and ambition; a world of old men who burnish their festering grievances and vanities; and a world of long-suppressed but finally uncontainable brutality, in this final volume of a trilogy of outstanding and acclaimed contemporary noir.

Reviews

  • Praise for Song Cycle Trilogy:
    'Deeply intelligent . . . The vertiginously devious plot twists like a fist round the throat of the reader. Robert Edric makes it impossible for the crime novel to be considered the country cousin of serious literature any longer'
    The Times

About the author

Robert Edric

Robert Edric was born in 1956. His novels include Winter Garden (James Tait Black Prize winner 1986), A New Ice Age (runner-up for the Guardian Fiction Prize 1986), The Book of the Heathen (winner of the WH Smith LIterary Award 2000), Peacetime (longlisted for the Booker Prize 2002), Gathering the Water (longlisted for the Booker Prize 2006) and In Zodiac Light (shortlisted for the Dublin Impac Prize 2010). His most recent novel is Sanctuary. He lives in Yorkshire.
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