CANR
WORK TITLE: A RUSH OF BLOOD
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Yorkshire, England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: CA 388
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born December 28, 1977; has a partner; children: two.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, public speaker, and educator. Previously, worked as a journalist for publications, including the Yorkshire Post and the Press Association. Performer at literary festivals; teaches creative writing. Also was reader-in-residence for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.
WRITINGS
Also author of short stories for the “DS Aector McAvoy” series, including “A Bad Death,” 2015, and “Fire of Lies,” 2016. Author of Radio 4 drama, A Marriage of Inconvenience. Has also written for the stage; has contributed articles and reviews to several national (Great Britain) and international publications.
Film rights for The Dark Winter have been acquired; Dark Winter was adapted for stage and performed in Hull, Great Britain, 2018.
SIDELIGHTS
David Mark is an English writer. He has worked as a journalist for publications, including the Yorkshire Post and the Press Association.
The Dark Winter is the first installment in Mark’s “DS Aector McAvoy” series, set in Hull. In an interview with a contributor to the Hull Daily Mail website, Mark commented on the setting: “One of the reasons I chose Hull was that I always thought this landscape was perfect for that kind of fiction. People are going crazy for these Scandinavian crime dramas because they have this desolate feel. Let’s be honest, if there’s one thing Hull has in spades it is desolate beauty.” He described McAvoy’s character in an interview with a writer on the My Bookish Ways website: “He’s human. He’s fundamentally good but understands the darkness in people because he believes himself to be far from perfect. He just wants to be with his wife and children and to live a life that matters and doesn’t cause anybody any harm. He feels a duty to the bereaved. He sees his role as coming somewhere between sorrow and goodbye. He’s got a poetic soul and a warrior’s build but the personality of an embarrassed mouse.” The Dark Winter finds McAvoy investigating the murder of teenager Daphne Cotton and the apparent suicide of sea disaster survivor Fred Stein.
A reviewer on the website It’s a Crime! Book Reviews asserted: “His characterisation is rich, producing real and vivid people; he connects us both to the living and the dead, drawing in an emotional commitment; his writing is lean, but with each carefully chosen word and phrase creating a blossom of picture over the sum of the parts.” A writer on the Crimepieces website described the volume as “a well written and uncomfortable thriller.” Geoff Jones, a contributor to the Euro Crime website suggested of Mark: “He brings alive the remoteness of Hull from the rest of Yorkshire and the financial decay of the area.” Reviewing the novel on the Curled Up with a Good Book website, Luan Gaines remarked: “In a bleak setting replete with dramatic physical confrontations and violent murders, McAvoy’s tender relationship with his wife informs a novel of visual and psychological impact.”
In Original Skin, McAvoy looks into the death of a gay man named Simon Appleyard and deals with prejudice due to his wife’s Roma heritage. Detective Trish Pharaoh investigates violence related to the cannabis trade.
Gaines, the reviewer on the Curled Up with Good Book Web site, suggested: “It’s a complicated, sophisticated plot, but Mark handles it deftly.” Gaines also noted: “This is only the beginning for a fascinating new character on the literary scene.” “Mark’s gift for developing characters is matched by his evocative portrait of downtrodden, rain-swept Hull,” commented Gaughan in Booklist. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly remarked: “Sophisticated plotting, in-depth characters, and sharp dialogue elevate British author Mark’s gritty second police procedural.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor asserted: “McAvoy’s second … is an excellent police procedural featuring sex, violence, and complex characters who are quirky but likable.”
McAvoy and Pharaoh hope to catch serial killer and rapist Sebastien Hoyer-Wood in Sorrow Bound. Meanwhile, McAvoy sees a psychologist, and his wife, Roisin, incurs the wrath of drug dealer Adam Downey.
Gaines, again on Curled Up with a Good Book, commented: “Mark balances his two-pronged plot with deadly precision.” Gaines added: “In his most harrowing and disturbing tale yet, Mark pushes his Scots detective to the edge of a cliff this time—then he pushes him off.” “Compelling characters and a knotty mystery make the third from Mark … stand out from other procedurals,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly suggested: “Well-fleshed out supporting characters round out the cast.” Gaughan opined in Booklist: “Each McAvoy novel has been dark, but Sorrow Bound goes beyond dark to near-apocalyptic. Mark pulls it off, though.”
In Taking Pity, Roisin is in witness protection after their home is bombed. McAvoy tries to crack a fifty- year-old cold case.
Gaines, writing again on the Curled Up with a Good Book website, asserted: “With Pharaoh and McAvoy as central figures, their very human exertions and failures make this tale both fascinating and appalling.” Gaines noted: “Mark proves addictive, a provocative writer celebrating his protagonists while never shirking the base realities of crime and corruption. Though there is a temporary respite, new sharks are circling, unfinished business at hand.” “Mark weaves a complicated web of deception … and violence as the action builds to a stunning conclusion,” remarked a Publishers Weekly critic. Booklist contributor Gaughan suggested: “Mark again delivers … a wonderfully atmospheric portrait of the storm-lashed, knackered old city of Hull.” A writer in Kirkus Reviews commented: “Mark’s fourth … is a dark, bloody, twisting tale of love, hate, and greed you can’t put down.”
Cruel Mercy finds McAvoy in New York City working with the police department there after Brishen Ayers, a boxing trainer, and his protege, the boxer Shay Helden are shot. Helden is dead, and Ayres is in a coma. McAvoy’s boss, Pharaoh, arranged for McAvoy to go to New York to work on the case, which involves McAvoy’s brother-in-law, Valentine Teague. It turns out that Teague followed Ayres and Helden to New York. As a result, Teague is a prime suspect in the case because of a longtime feud between the two “traveler” clans, traditionally an itinerant ethnic group in Ireland with strong traditions. Intent on finding Teague, McAvoy attracts the attention of both the Italian and Russian mafias as it appears a psychopath may be on a murder spree.
“To call Mark’s novels … police procedurals is like calling the Mona Lisa a pretty painting,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who added: “Beautifully crafted, filled with flashbacks, horror, angst, and chilling detail, this one is his most complex and best yet.” Thomas Gaughan, writing in Booklist, called Cruel Mercy a “strange but compelling brew.”
In Dead Pretty, McAvoy is working on the case of a missing woman. When a subsequent woman is murdered, McAvoy wonders if there is some connection and if the missing woman might be dead as well. Meanwhile, McAvoy’s boss, Pharaoh, is facing professional troubles when Reuben Hollow, a convicted murderer, is freed following an appeal revealing perjured testimony. Then several men are murdered, all accused of abusing women. It turns out that Hollow may be the murderer, which causes McAvoy to take a different perspective on a man who can be extremely charming. Questions also arise about Pharaoh and her potential involvement in police corruption.
“Strong prose, intriguing characters, and high tension make this a standout,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. An Internet Bookwatch contributor remarked: “Featuring a deftly crafted, gritty, atmospheric mystery …, Dead Pretty is a compelling read with more twists and turns than a Coney Island rollercoaster.”
The Mausoleum is a stand-alone thriller featuring two women who decide to investigate a mysterious occurrence at a cemetery. Cordelia, who lost her son at a young age, is considered an outsider in the village of Gilsland. Meanwhile, Felicity is a native of the small hamlet and has lived a relatively isolated life. The two find themselves at the local cemetery together when lighting strikes a mausoleum, which opens up, ejecting a blue-suited body. Although the townspeople are skeptical of their story, a neighbor heads out to see what happened and ends up dying in a car crash. Meanwhile, the body has disappeared. When Cordelia and Felicity start to search for answers, they encounter a resistant population hiding village secrets.
“Mark produces a stand-alone psychological thriller, character-driven but with plenty of bizarre twists,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Noting the “deft writing, [and] a plot filled with strange and unexpected twists,” Emily Melton, writing in Booklist, went on to call the novel “a gripping and unusual read.”
Mark presents another stand-alone thriller with A Rush of Blood. The story takes place in London where ten-year-old Hilda becomes concerned when her friend, Media, doesn’t show up for their dance class together. Hilda’s mother, Molly, manages the Jolly Bonnet pub in the Whitechapel district, famous for being the area where Jack the Ripper committed his murders. It turns out that Molly is a former police officer. Hilda asks her mother to go see Media’s Lithuanian parents to make sure everything is alright. The visit leads to Molly suspecting something is terribly wrong. Molly ends up enlisting the help of her friend, Lottie, a pathologist who tells Molly that the police suspect a gang is attacking immigrants. Also on hand is a Mr. Farkas, a fan of Jean Denys, a seventeen-century French physician who performed the first documented human blood transfusion and who who used animal blood and goose quills as hypodermics. There is also a man named Karol, a fixer who is searching for Media as well and who becomes involved with Molly.
“The blood-drenched finale and disturbingly creepy epilogue will long remain in the mind of the reader,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. A Kirkus Reviews contributor warned readers: “Don’t expect a happy ending in this twisty, chilling tale.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 15, 2012, Thomas Gaughan, review of The Dark Winter, p. 29; May 1, 2013, Thomas Gaughan, review of Original Skin, p. 35; May 1, 2014, Thomas Gaughan, review of Sorrow Bound, p. 42; May 15, 2015, Thomas Gaughan, review of Taking Pity, p. 29; December 1, 2016, Thomas Gaughan, review of Cruel Mercy, p. 29; May 1, 2019, Emily Melton, review of The Mausoleum, p. 32.
Internet Bookwatch, July, 2017, review of Dead Pretty.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2013, review of Original Skin; June 1, 2014, review of Sorrow Bound; May 1, 2015, review of Taking Pity; December 15, 2016, review of Cruel Mercy; April 2, 2019, review of The Mausoleum; November 15, 2019, review of A Rush of Blood.
MBR Bookwatch, July, 2015, Paul T. Vogel, review of Taking Pity.
Publishers Weekly, August 20, 2012, review of The Dark Winter, p. 40; March 18, 2013, review of Original Skin, p. 60; May 26, 2014, review of Sorrow Bound, p. 37; May 25, 2015, p. 96; November 4, 2019, review of A Rush of Blood, p. 42.
Xpress Reviews, April 26, 2019, Lisa Holstine, review of The Mausoleum.
ONLINE
Chillers Killers and Thrillers, https://chillerskillersandthrillers.wordpress.com/ (August 10, 2016), “Author Interview: David Mark.”
Crimepieces, http://crimepieces.com/ (January 8, 2013), review of The Dark Winter.
Curled Up with a Good Book, http://www.curledup.com/ (April 12, 2016), Luan Gaines, review of The Dark Winter; Luan Gaines, review of Original Skin; Luan Gaines, review of Sorrow Bound; Luan Gaines, review of Taking Pity.
David Mark, http://www.david-mark.com (March 18, 2016).
EuroCrime, http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/ (March, 2012), Geoff Jones, review of The Dark Winter.
Hull Daily Mail, http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/ (January 16, 2014), author interview.
It’s a Crime! Book Reviews, https://itsacrimeukbooks.wordpress.com/ (October 21, 2012), review of The Dark Winter.
My Bookish Ways, http://www.mybookishways.com/ (July 28, 2015), author interview.
David spent more than fifteen years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with the Yorkshire Post - walking the Hull streets that would later become the setting for the Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy novels.
His writing is heavily influenced by the court cases he covered: the defeatist and jaded police officers; the competent and incompetent investigators; the inertia of the justice system and the sheer raw grief of those touched by savagery and tragedy.
He has written eight novels in the McAvoy series: Dark Winter, Original Skin, Sorrow Bound, Taking Pity, Dead Pretty, Cruel Mercy, Scorched Earth and Cold Bones as well as two McAvoy novellas, A Bad Death and Fire of Lies, which are available as ebooks. His first historical thriller, The Zealot’s Bones, is out now.
Dark Winter was selected for the Harrogate New Blood panel (where he was Reader in Residence) and was a Richard & Judy pick and a Sunday Times bestseller. Dead Pretty was longlisted for the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger in 2016.
David’s Radio 4 drama, A Marriage of Inconvenience, aired last year. His first novel is currently being adapted for the stage. He has also written for the stage and has contributed articles and reviews to several national and international publications. He is a regular performer at literary festivals and is a sought-after public speaker. He also teaches creative writing.
David also starts to get all squirmy and self-conscious when he looks at stuff like this, so we’ll leave it there.
David Mark is represented by Oli Munson at A.M. Heath Literary Agents.
Questions and Answers
What is essential to writing good crime fiction? Do you stick to some sort of formula or do you break all the rules? Do you read a lot of crime fiction or thrillers as well?
I read everything I can get my hands on. I love thrillers and psychological fiction but it is rather difficult to read them for pleasure now that it’s my day job. It’s hard not to read with an air of comparing the market. I don’t really take any notice of rules, either in the writing process or in life. Actually, I do have one – if the novelist has mentioned the make and model of a car by the end of the first paragraph, the book isn’t for me. And for God’s sake, don’t start off with a dream. For me, it’s just a case of meeting interesting people and twisting preconceptions on their head. Listen to the radio a lot. People who phone DJs are particularly inspiring – they always seem like the sort of person who could be a killer or the killed. Listen to your inner voice. When some dullard is telling you about their tedious problems, think of ways to kill them, and why. It’s less risky than actually doing it. And you think I’m joking.
David Mark
(David J Mark)
aka D M Mark
David spent more than 15 years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with The Yorkshire Post - walking the Hull streets that would later become the setting for the Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy novels.
His writing is heavily influenced by the court cases he covered: the defeatist and jaded police officers; the incompetent investigators; the inertia of the justice system and the sheer raw grief of those touched by savagery and tragedy.
He lives in Lincolnshire and is now a full-time novelist.
Genres: Mystery
New Books
September 2019
(hardback)
A Rush of Blood
September 2019
(paperback)
The Mausoleum
October 2019
(paperback)
Cold Bones
(DS Aector McAvoy, book 8)
March 2020
(hardback)
Borrowed Time
Series
DS Aector McAvoy
1. Dark Winter (2012)
2. Original Skin (2013)
3. Sorrow Bound (2014)
4. Taking Pity (2015)
4.5. A Bad Death (2015)
5. Dead Pretty (2016)
5.5. Fire of Lies (2016)
6. Cruel Mercy (2017)
7. Scorched Earth (2018)
8. Cold Bones (2019)
Novels
The Mausoleum (2019)
A Rush of Blood (2019)
Borrowed Time (2020)
D M Mark
A pseudonym used by David Mark
Genres: Historical Mystery
Novels
The Zealot's Bones (2017)
David Mark (novelist)
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David John Mark (born 28 December 1977) is an English novelist and journalist, known for his DS Aector McAvoy series of crime fiction books.[1]
Mark's debut novel, entitled Dark Winter, became one of Richard & Judy's Book Club picks in 2012, helping to raise its profile. It sat alongside novels such as Gone Girl and The Fault in Our Stars.[2] To date, the book has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in all formats and it has been critically acclaimed around the world, as well as being translated into six languages.[3] A major TV company optioned the series.[4]
Follow-up Original Skin was released in April 2013.[5] It continues the story of DS Aector McAvoy, a Scottish policeman based in Hull's Serious And Organised Crime Unit, following him as he investigates suspicious deaths within the city's sleazy underworld, while contending with changing politics within the force. The third novel, Sorrow Bound was also a critical success. Mark's follow up, Taking Pity, were acclaimed around the world.[6]
In 2016 he signed with Mulholland Books, an imprint of Hodder and Stoughton. He released McAvoy novels Dead Pretty, Scorched Earth, Cruel Mercy and Cold Bones, as well as historical novel The Zealot's Bones, which was one of the Sunday Times Books of the Year in 2016.
Before signing his publishing deal with Quercus, Mark was a journalist specialising in crime reporting for a number of newspapers and agencies - most notably for the Yorkshire Post in their Hull office. He spent time as a showbusiness reporter for the Press Association, though he has claimed he loathed the experience.[7]
In 2018, a stage adaptation of Dark Winter receive its world premiere in Hull. Tickets sold out in days.
Last year he signed a deal with publishers Severn House. His first book, The Mausoleum, has been a critical success and will be released in paperback next year.
He lives in Northumberland with his family.
Books[8][edit]
Dark Winter (Aector McAvoy, #1, 2012)
Original Skin (Aector McAvoy, #2, 2013)
Sorrow Bound (Aector McAvoy, #3, 2014)
Taking Pity (Aector McAvoy, #4, 2015)
Dead Pretty (Aector McAvoy, #5, 2016)
A Bad Death (Aector McAvoy, 2015; Short story)
Fire of Lies (Aector McAvoy, 2016; Short story)
Cruel Mercy (Aector McAvoy, #6, 2016)
David Mark spent seven years as crime reporter for the Yorkshire Post and now writes full-time. A former Richard & Judy pick and Sunday Times bestseller, he is the author of nine police procedurals in the DS Aector McAvoy series and one historical novel. He lives in Northumberland with his family.
David spent more than 15 years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with The Yorkshire Post - walking the Hull streets that would later become the setting for the Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy novels.
His writing is heavily influenced by the court cases he covered: the defeatist and jaded police officers; the competent and incompetent investigators; the inertia of the justice system and the sheer raw grief of those touched by savagery and tragedy.
He has written five novels in the McAvoy series, Dark Winter, Original Skin, Sorrow Bound, Taking Pity and Dead Pretty. David has also written a McAvoy novella, A Bad Death, which is available as an ebook. Dark Winter was selected for the Harrogate New Blood panel, a Richard & Judy pick and a Sunday Times bestseller.
He lives in Lincolnshire with his partner, two children and an assortment of animals.
Author Interview: David Mark
Posted on 10/08/2016 by rhemms
Today I’m thrilled to have David Mark, author of the DS McAvoy series, joining me for a quick chat all about his new novel Dead Pretty.
Welcome to the CKT blog David!
To start off with, can you tell us a little bit about your new book in the DS McAvoy series, Dead Pretty and what sparked your idea for the story?
I spend a lot of time wondering about in the woods and sitting in old churches, letting my mind drift and getting all existential. I was out at this gorgeous little church in East Yorkshire and was just having a bit of a daydream and because I’m the sort of person who plays the music of his life on the black keys, my thoughts turned dark. It was a gorgeous sunny day and I just had this notion that human beings see the sunshine as being full of hope and fairy-tales but nature is a different beast. I was thinking about how ladybirds look pretty until you see them chewing through an aphid. And I imagined a young girl, excited and happy and full of zeal for her clandestine meeting, and the peril she was putting herself in with her big heart and naiveté. It snowballed from there really. I found myself really interested in the sliding scale we use to qualify tragedy. Of course, that all sounds like a very Radio 4 kind of answer, so if you’re after a thrilling police procedural, I hope it ticks that box too. This is the story of a good policeman’s obsession with getting justice – even as a vicious killer exacts justice of their own. It involves armpit-scalping and a murder involving a toilet seat. I’m giving you no more than that.
I love the title of your novel, where did the inspiration for this come from?
That’s a hangover from my journalism days. Whenever there had been a murder it would be up to one of the journalists to acquire a picture of the dead. It was so strange that people thought it was somehow more tragic if the murdered girl was a look. You’d catch people saying ‘she’s dead pretty’ and then feeling awful for being callous.
I found the central investigation into the disappearance of Hannah Kelly and Ava Delaney’s murder compelling with a number of twists and turns I didn’t see coming. Did you plot the story out first or did you dive right in and see where the story took you?
I never dive right in. I’m a careful plotter. Sometimes parts of the narrative take off under their own steam but I like to know how it will end before I begin. I always knew that I wanted to write a story about the character of Reuben Hollow, who may or may not have killed somebody who bullied his daughter. I identify with that character very closely. Don’t judge me.
Who is your favourite recurring character in the series and why?
I think that would have to be Trish Pharaoh, Aector’s boss. She makes me laugh and she writes her own lines, in a way. I think she’s the most believable character I’ve ever written. But I do love the giant, scarred gangland enforcer, Mahon, who disappeared over the clifftop at the end of TAKING PITY and reappeared in the e-book A BAD DEATH. There may one day be a book about his youth, if anybody would like to make me an offer …
There is always a lot of debate about where the best place is for an author to write, where is the best place that you have found to write? And do you have any rituals or writing quirks?
I’m very lucky in that regard. I have a lovely office in my house, full of all the essentials, like books and maps and wrestling figures, and I just get my head down and get on with it. It’s a big change from all the years when I was unpublished – scribbling in notebooks while waiting for juries to return from murder trials.
Just for fun…if you could collaborate with one author, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
I always thought it would be an honour to work with Terry Pratchett, but everybody I’ve spoken to says he was an absolute terror, so I may spare myself that. I’m actually very energised by mixed media projects and have half an idea that would work as a graphic novel so perhaps somebody in that area. I’d go into a coma of excitement if I got to work with Alan Moore. But I’m a bit of a control freak so it would be hard to share the creative process, I fear. I suppose if I was brutally honest I would like to have collaborated on one of the so-called ‘classics’ like Pride and Prejudice or Mill on the Floss. Perhaps that way I would have made them vaguely engrossing.
Finally, are you working on anything at the moment? If so, can you tell us a little bit about it without giving too much away?
I’m always working on something! I write constantly. If I don’t, the voices in my head start to scream. I have my first historical crime novel coming out next year and there is another McAvoy, CRUEL MERCY, out in January, taking Aector to New York. I’ve got a few radio projects up my sleeve and hope to dip my toe in the true-crime market. There’s no rest when you write about the wicked.
I would like to say a huge thank you to David for answering my questions for the CKT blog!
Mark, David A RUSH OF BLOOD Severn House (Adult Fiction) $28.99 1, 7 ISBN: 978-0-7278-8905-8
A young girl's concern for a missing friend plunges her and her mother into a perilous situation in another of Mark's haunting psychological thrillers (The Mausoleum, 2019, etc.).
Hilda leads an odd life with her mother, Molly, a former police officer who runs a pub in the heart of Jack the Ripper's London. The Jolly Bonnet's morbid exhibits draw people with similar interests. When Meda Stauskas, an awkward Lithuanian girl Hilda's befriended, doesn't turn up for their dance class, Hilda urges Molly to visit Meda's parents. A tough-looking man named Karol tells them nothing is wrong. Molly, who isn't buying it, enlists her best friend, Lottie, a pathologist and vlogger interested in the macabre, who remembers the police telling her that a local gang has targeted immigrants. When the pub is visited by three heavies who attack after accusing them all of snooping, Karol turns up and throws them out. He says that Meda's been gone three days and that her parents have called him instead of the police. Karol describes himself as a fixer of problems who expects to make a payment to get Meda back. As Molly grows more intimate with Karol, he admits that Meda may be dead, since only a fake call for money has ever come. Unknown to Molly's crew is the mysterious bibliophile Mr. Farkas, who has a special interest in the works of Jean Denys, best remembered for transfusing blood from animals to humans using goose quills as hypodermics. Farkas has a particular reason to learn more about Denys' work. So does Lottie after she recalls the case of a young girl, similar in appearance to Meda, who was found dead with a goose feather in a puncture wound. Farkas may be the key to Meda's whereabouts once they learn of his existence.
Don't expect a happy ending in this twisty, chilling tale.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Mark, David: A RUSH OF BLOOD." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A605549673/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8e6d67a9. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A605549673
A Rush of Blood David Mark. Severn, $28.99 (224p) ISBN 9780-7278-8905-8
Set in London ("with its rain and its noise and the feeling that every breath has been through a million other lungs before it reaches your own"), this vivid and often witty gothic thriller from Mark (The Mausoleum) comes complete with all the trimmings: madness, death, a gloomy house that holds a terrifying secret, and echoes of a bloody past. Ten-year-old Hilda is the daughter of Molly, the man-ager of the Jolly Bonnet, "Whitechapel's premier Victorian gin bat." Decorated with antique medical equipment, the pub is "a must-see destination for anybody with an interest in the murky world of morbid anatomy." When a schoolmate goes missing, Hilda seeks help in finding her from Molly and Lottie, "a well-respected pathologist and an excellent curator of the necro-museum she personally established," who has her own YouTube channel. Lottie and her posse of followers soon discover that other young girls have gone missing. The blood-drenched finale and disturbingly creepy epilogue will long remain in the mind of the reader. Those with a taste for the macabre will be well satisfied. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (Jan.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"A Rush of Blood." Publishers Weekly, 4 Nov. 2019, p. 42. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A606234550/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4742dc3d. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A606234550
The Mausoleum. By David Mark. June 2019. 304p. Severn, $28.99 (9780727888723); e-book (9781448302109).
Two elderly women sit at the bedside of a dying man. But who are they and why are they there? In a story spanning nearly six decades, Mark weaves a grisly, creepy tale of violence, hatred, revenge, and honor that will have readers captivated from the first page. Set in the cold, windy, and rainy north of England, the story focuses on Felicity and Cordelia, two woman who are utterly unalike but who are brought together by a cataclysmic event that has shocking repercussions. Cordelia--scarred by a difficult life--has moved to the remote village of Gilsland to escape her past but finds herself isolated and alone after losing her child. Felicity grew up in Gilsland and knows shockingly little about the world beyond the village. After a terrible storm, the pair make a curious discovery that will lead to the revelation of deadly secrets but that also will make them fast friends. Deft writing, a plot filled with strange and unexpected twists, vivid characters, and a constant feeling of foreboding make this a gripping and unusual read.--Emily Melton
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Melton, Emily. "The Mausoleum." Booklist, 1 May 2019, p. 32. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A587366664/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8bba3b9e. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A587366664
Mark, David THE MAUSOLEUM Severn House (Adult Fiction) $28.99 6, 1 ISBN: 978-0-7278-8872-3
A lifetime of secrets is slowly revealed in this intricate look into past murders and present-day guilt.
October 1967 finds Cordelia Hemlock lonely and grief-stricken in the remote area of the Scottish borderlands hard by Hadrian's Wall, mourning her young son who recently died. While lying in a cemetery one day, she's approached by Felicity Goose, a local woman destined to become her lifelong friend. Cordelia and her rarely seen husband bought a house in the area where they were raising Cordelia's son, Stefan, the product of a short-lived university affair that could never end in marriage. Instead, Cordelia accepted an offer of support for Stefan and herself from a gay, highly placed government official who needed a wife for cover. The area residents' dismissal of Cordelia as a snob has softened since she lost her child. Now, when a sudden storm catches the two women in the graveyard, a lightning strike fells a tree, destroying a small crypt and revealing not only ancient bones, but the body of a much newer corpse in a dark suit. Recovering in Felicity's house, Cordelia meets a neighbor named Fairfax Duke, who agrees to go to the cemetery to see the body Felicity doesn't want to admit exists. When Fairfax doesn't return to Felicity's house, it turns out that he's been killed in a car crash. The other body has disappeared, but the police ask no questions, so Cordelia finds a new purpose in life investigating what she assumes is a murder. Since the death of his son in World War II, Fairfax had never stopped asking questions and writing the stories of everyone in the area who would talk to him, and now he's left a rich lode of information for Cordelia. Many of the people he interviewed are local, but some just never left the area after being released from a POW camp during World War II. As the story shifts from the 1960s to 2010, appalling secrets come to light, putting Cordelia in jeopardy while changing her life in unimaginable ways.
In a departure from his superlative police procedurals (Cold Bones, 2019, etc.), Mark produces a stand-alone psychological thriller, character-driven but with plenty of bizarre twists, that's sure to please fans of Catriona McPherson.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Mark, David: THE MAUSOLEUM." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A580520933/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f96f5768. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A580520933
Dead Pretty
David Mark. Blue Rider, $16 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-399-18515-1
Mark's gritty fifth series crime novel (after 2015's Taking Pity) finds Det. Sgt. Aector McAvoy fixated on two unsolved cases: the disappearance of one young woman and the brutal murder of another nine months later. McAvoy's friend Det. Constable Helen Tremberg wishes that "he were able to free himself of the barbed wire of conscience that he has wrapped in and around himself." Meanwhile, handsome, charming Reuben Hollow, who was convicted of murder, is freed when his conviction is quashed on appeal. This reflects badly on McAvoy's boss, Det. Supt. Trish Pharaoh, who originally put Hollow behind bars. When evidence connects Hollow to several murders of men who have abused women, McEvoy wonders whether Hollow is a killer of abusers and women. Or is he in fact the nice guy he appears to be? And what about Pharaoh--is she a good cop or a corrupt one? Mark keeps the reader guessing. Strong prose, intriguing characters, and high tension make this a standout. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (May)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Dead Pretty." Publishers Weekly, 26 Mar. 2018, p. 96. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A532997140/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c1ce00ae. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532997140
Mark, David CRUEL MERCY Blue Rider Press (Adult Fiction) $27.00 2, 7 ISBN: 978-0-399-18511-3
A British policeman blunders into gang warfare and worse in New York City. DS Aector McAvoy of the Humberside Police knows what's important to him: his wife, Roisin; their children; his boss, Trish Pharaoh; and his job. When Irish boxer Shay Helden is murdered and his coach, Brishen Ayres, badly wounded and left in a coma while on a trip to New York, the Traveler families of both men suspect rival Traveler and fellow boxer Valentine Teague, who is Roisin's brother. Pharaoh pulls strings to get Aector sent to New York to try to prove Valentine innocent before the long-simmering differences between the Traveler families become open warfare. His NYPD liaison, Ronald Alto, has been told only that Aector has knowledge that might help with the case, but Aector opens up to him, which puts Valentine on the suspect list in New York. Since the visitors had been in New York only two days and spent most of their time at the gym in hopes of arranging a boxing match for Shay with a major promoter, the police are having trouble establishing another motive. The pair also visited Saint Colman's church, the former parish of Father Jimmy Whelan, a popular priest now in Ireland who helped Valentine get a last-minute passport to follow Shay and Brishen. Aector's questions attract the interest of the Italian and Russian mafias, who both have an interest in boxing, legal and otherwise. Helping the NYPD catch a sexual predator helps establish Aector with the locals, but much is still being hidden from him. Occasional chapters throughout the book reveal the thoughts of both a stone-cold Mafia hit man and a psychopathic killer whose horrific crimes may be related to both the Mafia and the church. Though he's never imagined chatting face to face with Mafia bosses, that may be the only way he can untangle a series of murders past and present and save Valentine. To call Mark's novels (Taking Pity, 2015, etc.) police procedurals is like calling the Mona Lisa a pretty painting. Beautifully crafted, filled with flashbacks, horror, angst, and chilling detail, this one is his most complex and best yet.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Mark, David: CRUEL MERCY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2016. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A473652397/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8b84b0b1. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A473652397
Cruel Mercy. By David Mark. Feb. 2017.368p. Penguin/Blue Rider, $27 (97803991851131.
DS Aector McAvoy, the giant Scottish copper (Taking Pity, 2015), is off to New York to assist the NYPD in solving the shootings of Ireland's top boxing trainer and his protege. Brishen Ayres, the trainer, is comatose, and his protege, Shay Helden, is dead. But McAvoy's personal goal is to find his wild, pugnacious brother-in-law, Valentine Teague, who followed the two victims to New York and may be about to turn a years-old feud between two "traveler" clans into a shooting war. Reviews of Mark's previous McAvoy novels have noted the author's "labyrinthine" and "borderline operatic" plots. But Cruel Mercy, in homage to the Big Apple, goes full-on operatic. It mixes a sketchy alliance of Italian and Chechen mobsters, a Philly hit man, a Catholic priest whose good intentions get tragically twisted by being confessor to Italian gangsters, a mob lawyer and money launderer whose madness and Catholic faith bring him to self-mutilation and serial murder, and a mute serial killer who can speak only to his victims. Glances back at nearly 50 years of odd goings-on in the city that never sleeps pepper this strange but compelling brew.--Thomas Gaughan
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Gaughan, Thomas. "Cruel Mercy." Booklist, 1 Dec. 2016, p. 29. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A474718233/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=db8fd373. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A474718233
Mark, David. The Mausoleum. Severn House. Jun. 2019. 304p. ISBN 9780727888723. $28.99; ebk. ISBN 9781448302109. MYS Cordelia Hemlock is lying in a grave when Felicity Goose meets her in 1967. Still mourning the death of her young son, Cordelia is from away and not yet accepted by the villagers in Gilsland, a British town almost at the Scottish border. While the two women are at the cemetery, lightning strikes an old mausoleum, cracking it open. No one believes them when they report seeing a body dressed in a blue suit tumble out. When a neighbor sets out to verify it, his car goes off the road in the storm, and he's killed. But the body in the blue suit is gone. Cordelia convinces her new friend to investigate with her; however, some villagers and several powerful outsiders want the town's secrets to remain hidden. Cordelia and Felicity are caught up in a twisted mystery with tentacles that reach back 20 years to World War II, a story that won't be untangled for another 40 years. This intricately plotted bleak story has a menacing tone.
VERDICT This stand-alone thriller by the author of the DS McAvoy series is a very British tale. While it's suspenseful, it's filled with dialect and told by both women in alternating chapters. Fans of postwar stories with connections to the war might want to try this sometimes confusing work.-- Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Holstine, Lesa. "Mark, David. The Mausoleum." Xpress Reviews, 26 Apr. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A583990882/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=197d31c5. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A583990882
Dead Pretty
David Mark
Blue Rider Press
c/o Penguin Group USA
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
www.us.penguingroup.com
9780399185151, $16.00, PB, 352pp, www.amazon.com
While a colleague struggles to solve the recent killing of a man too vile to have mourners, Aector McAvoy, Detective Sergeant of the Humberside Police's murder squad, is still haunted by the past. His devotion to his cases is unshakeable, but it's been nine months since Hannah Kelly disappeared in the quiet English countryside, and it is becoming harder to convince himself that she is just missing instead of dead--especially when another young woman is found brutally murdered. As McAvoy looks for connections between the women, his boss Trish Pharaoh is preoccupied with troubles of her own. Reuben Hollow (a man convicted of murder with the help of perjured testimony from the Humberside Police) has just been released from prison after a high-profile wrongful conviction suit, putting Pharaoh's reputation at stake. But when her house is broken into and her children threatened, she soon learns it is not only her good name that's in danger. As the cases intertwine and Pharaoh's behavior becomes more erratic, McAvoy must question who he can trust if he is to uncover Hannah's fate and find justice for the dead--without joining them himself. Featuring a deftly crafted, gritty, atmospheric mystery by a master of the genre, "Dead Pretty" is a compelling read with more twists and turns that a Coney Island rollercoaster. While very highly recommended for community library Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of dedicated mystery buffs that "Dead Pretty" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Dead Pretty." Internet Bookwatch, July 2018. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A550300633/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=885bba7d. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A550300633