[Joe Donovan 01] • The Mercy Seat

"Martyn Waites stands out in the crowded field of young British noir writers . . . with his bruised characters, raw-edged dialogue, and extraordinary night vision."-The New York Times Book Review

"London's dark heart has seldom been exposed with such surgical precision. Brutal, mesmerizing stuff."-Ian Rankin

"A huge talent."-TimeOut London

"One of the brightest stars in the British crime writing firmament."-John Connolly

A research scientist has gone missing. An ace newspaper reporter has disappeared; so has a minidisc, along with its incriminating evidence. And a teenage hustler is on the run. In his pursuer, the Hammer, a skin-headed professional killer with a blue sapphire tooth and a taste for death metal, "the principle of evil" has indeed been "made flesh."

From its staggering opening to an electrifying finish, its prose pumping adrenaline all the way, Martyn Waites' new novel wrests former investigative journalist Joe Donovan out of his reclusion in Newcastle. His heart broken by the disappearance of his six-year-old son two years earlier-a case that remains unsolved-he now finds his destiny entwined with that of the streetwise but vulnerable and frightened teenager Jamal. For on the minidisc, lifted by an unwitting Jamal, lies a crucial, increasingly perilous link to Donovan's past.

Unsettling and unpredictable, this taut, compelling page-turner of a novel delivers point-blank every unexpected narrative hit, twist, and turn as it leads Donovan finally to the terror of the mercy seat.

Martyn Waites is emerging as one of the leading writers of British noir fiction. The Mercy Seat is his first Americanrelease. He lives in Newcastle.