[The Oxford Investigations 04] • Smoke and Whispers

Praise for Mick Herron:

"Mick Herron never tells a suspense story in the expected way, which is why his new novel . . . reads as much like a puzzle mystery as it does a thriller. . . . Unpleasant things are bound to happen, and they do--but not until Herron has finished surprising us. . . . In Herron's book, there is no hiding under the desk."--The New York Times Book Review

"[A] masterful thriller. . . . The intricate plot, coupled with Herron's breezy writing style, results in superior entertainment that makes most other novels of suspense appear dull and slow-witted by comparison."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

When a body is hauled from the River Tyne, Sarah Tucker heads to Newcastle for a closer look. She identifies the dead woman as private detective Zoe Boehm, but putting a name to the corpse only raises further questions. Did Zoe kill herself, or did one of her old cases come back to haunt her? Why was she wearing a jacket a murderer had stolen years before? And what's brought Sarah's sparring partner, Gerard Inchon, to the same broken down hotel? Coincidence is an excuse that soon looks pretty unconvincing. Sarah can't leave until she's found the answers to her questions, however dangerous they might turn out to be.

Mick Herron is the author of four previous successful titles. Born in Newcastle and a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford, he has a degree in English. A resident of Oxford, Mick works in London on future novels.