Review
'Reminiscent of the dislocation and dream-infested landscape that inhabits Auster's work ... Alice Thompson has bent the detective novel to her own will and produced something rather exciting.' Louise Welsh, Scottish Review of Books 'Alice Thompson ... grabs hold of the detective fiction tradition, flings it in the air, lets it crash to the floor, and jumps on it till it's in smithereens. She then reconstructs it into something that doesn't yet have a name ... The Existential Detective is unsettling, unsettlingly erotic, and somehow sadly beautiful. Thompson is fast becoming one of the most original and formidable writers in the English language today.' The Sunday Herald 'Haunting, strange, Kafkaesque, poetic mystery set in Portobello.' Ian Rankin 'A deeply moving and compelling read, packed with mysterious goings-on and bloodcurdling shocks, all counterbalanced by the author's trademark subtle and elegant prose ... Remarkable.' Camille Pia, The List
Product Description
William Blake is a private detective in Portobello. When he agrees to investigate the disappearance of Louise, the wife of scientist Dr Adam Verver, he finds himself entangled in layers of deceptions and disappearances that lead him inexorably back to unsolved mysteries in his own past.
About the Author
'The Existential Detective' is critically-acclaimed author Alice Thompson's fifth novel. The former keyboard player with post-punk eighties band, the Woodentops, was joint winner with Graham Swift of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction for her first novel, 'Justine'. Her second novel, 'Pandora's Box', was shortlisted for The Stakis Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. Alice is also a past winner of a Creative Scotland Award. She lives in Edinburgh.
