"For fans of the noir genre of both literature and film, I highly recommend this book when it is finally released in February 2014. I also recommend it to those who love a good mystery that keeps you guessing up to the end and wanting more even after the book ends. I can't wait to read more from Peter Swanson." - Goodreads
Already optioned for film, The Girl with a Clock for a Heart is Peter Swanson’s electrifying tale of romantic noir, with shades of Hitchcock and reminiscent of the classic movie Body Heat. It is the story of a man swept into a vortex of irresistible passion and murder when an old love mysteriously reappears.
On an ordinary Friday evening at his favorite Boston tavern, George Foss’s comfortable, predictable life is shattered when a beautiful woman sits down at the bar, a woman who vanished without a trace twenty years ago.
Liana Dector isn’t just an ex-girlfriend, the first love George couldn’t quite forget. She’s also a dangerous enigma and quite possibly a cold-blooded killer wanted by the police. Suddenly, she’s back—and she needs George’s help. Ruthless men believe she stole some money . . . and they will do whatever it takes to get it back.
George knows Liana is trouble. But he can’t say no—he never could—so he makes a choice that will plunge him into a terrifying whirlpool of lies, secrets, betrayal, and murder from which there is no sure escape.
Bold and masterful, full of malicious foreboding and subtle surprises, The Girl with a Clock for a Heart is an addictive, nonstop thriller—an ever-tightening coil of suspense that grips you right up to its electrifying end.
GUEST POST
What is a Literary Mystery by Peter Swanson
I remember when my editor referred to my first book as a “literary mystery.” I was pretty thrilled at the time. I was also just pretty thrilled that I was being published at all; he could have referred to my book as a “hack mystery” and I still would have been pretty happy. But I was more happy that he thought I fell into the “literary” category.
But why did I care? What does it even mean? For me, at the time, it meant that my book was more in line with, say, a mystery novel by Ruth Rendell instead of a thriller by Dick Francis. But here’s the thing: I love both Ruth Rendell and Dick Francis. Sure, I think Rendell is a slightly better writer, her characters a little less black and white, a little more developed, than Francis’, but I’m not exactly sure that makes her more literary. It just makes her a different kind of writer.
So now I think that a “literary mystery” is just short hand used by publishers to signal to readers what they might be getting. It’s the same with mysteries that are labelled “cozies”: it’s short hand for a mystery without gore, and one with a happy ending. Just like Agatha Christie used to write, for example. Yeah, those weren’t “literary” at all. But of course they were. There is great literary writing in all genres, just like there can be bad writing is so-called “literary” genres. Like I said before, I’m just happy to be in the game. I don’t care what they call me.
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About the author:
Peter Swanson is the author of The Kind Worth Killing, and has degrees from Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College.
He lives with his wife in Somerville, Massachusetts, where he is at work on his next novel.
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1 comment:
Genre categories are tough, I know. But they do help readers as a guide, so they're useful. Glad to hear that this author is just as confused by "literary" as the rest of us!
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