Murder Book

by Richard Rayner

79 Members (2.93)

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'About as noir as it can be...excellent' Frances Fyfield, Daily Telegraph The city is Los Angeles, the birthplace of the American dream, a city that has come to symbolize both heaven and hell. Billy McGrath is an enigma, half American, half English, who once dreamed of pursuing a career as an academic philosopher, but for the last fifteen years he's been a homicide detective - one of LA's best. He knows the rules, and understands a justice system that punishes the underprivileged and lets show more the rich go free. He's an unhappy man, divorced from the wife he still adores and separated from a daughter for whom he'd willingly die. If he hasn't yet thought of suicide, he soon will. McGrath is called to a crime scene - a woman dead on a kitchen floor in one of the city's seamiest neighbourhoods, an apparently routine assignment until he discovers that the murdered woman's son is LA's biggest crack dealer, an idol of the ghetto who offers him a one-million-dollar bounty for the name of the killer. Making the wrong choice for what might be the right reasons, McGrath initiates both his own fall from grace and, as he strives to redeem himself, a series of wild and furious actions that hurtle him through the many identities of corrupt Los Angeles. In McGrath, Rayner has created a sympathetic everyman who becomes both victim and victor. Set against a bleak cityscape, Murder Book is a dark, violent and sexy thriller that is impossible to put down. show less

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Author Information

19+ Works 904 Members
Richard Rayner's work appears in in The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and other publications. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.

Common Knowledge

Original publication date
1997
People/Characters
Billy McGrath
Important places
Los Angeles, California, USA

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, Mystery
DDC/MDS
813.54Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English1900-19991945-1999
LCC
PS3568 .A94 .M87Language and LiteratureAmerican literatureAmerican literatureIndividual authors1961-
BISAC

Statistics

Members
79
Popularity
401,199
Rating
(2.93)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
6
UPCs
2
ASINs
3