The Poison Artist
Published on 10. March 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-4091-5973-5 (ISBN)
Description
Imagine an updated Vertigo: darker, more scary but just as hypnotically seductive. Selected for BBC Radio 2 Book Club with Simon Mayo.
Dr Caleb Maddox is an expert on pain. A leading San Francisco toxicologist, he is mapping the chemical traces that show how much agony a human body can endure. But now a different kind of pain is distracting him from his life's work - the violent break-up of his relationship with his artist girlfriend, Bridget.
Seeking solace in a secluded bar, he meets a beautiful woman who shares an absinthe with him, then disappears into the night. Instantly obsessed, he starts trawling the hidden byways of the city to try and find her. And when he does, she insists on a bizarre set of rules before he can meet her alone.
But even as he tries to lose himself in Emmeline's darkly erotic world, Caleb finds himself inexorably drawn back to the study of pain and death. For weeks the police have been fishing corpses out of the bay, with no clue as to how they died, and Caleb's old friend, medical examiner Henry Newcomb, asks him to decipher the chemical puzzles left in the bloated remains. Soon Caleb discovers evidence of an unspeakable horror connecting all the victims, suggesting that the city is prey to a deranged killer.
And then he discovers that one of the dead men was last seen at the same bar the night he met Emmeline. Suddenly Caleb is plunged into a nightmare where love, madness and murder are clasped in a lethal embrace - and untangling the truth could be the last thing he wants to do.
Dr Caleb Maddox is an expert on pain. A leading San Francisco toxicologist, he is mapping the chemical traces that show how much agony a human body can endure. But now a different kind of pain is distracting him from his life's work - the violent break-up of his relationship with his artist girlfriend, Bridget.
Seeking solace in a secluded bar, he meets a beautiful woman who shares an absinthe with him, then disappears into the night. Instantly obsessed, he starts trawling the hidden byways of the city to try and find her. And when he does, she insists on a bizarre set of rules before he can meet her alone.
But even as he tries to lose himself in Emmeline's darkly erotic world, Caleb finds himself inexorably drawn back to the study of pain and death. For weeks the police have been fishing corpses out of the bay, with no clue as to how they died, and Caleb's old friend, medical examiner Henry Newcomb, asks him to decipher the chemical puzzles left in the bloated remains. Soon Caleb discovers evidence of an unspeakable horror connecting all the victims, suggesting that the city is prey to a deranged killer.
And then he discovers that one of the dead men was last seen at the same bar the night he met Emmeline. Suddenly Caleb is plunged into a nightmare where love, madness and murder are clasped in a lethal embrace - and untangling the truth could be the last thing he wants to do.
Reviews / Votes
An electrifying read... I haven't read anything so terrifying since Red Dragon. * STEPHEN KING * Patient, stylish and incredibly suspenseful. * LEE CHILD * A magnificent, thoroughly unnerving psychological thriller written in a lush, intoxicating style. I dare you to look away. * JUSTIN CRONIN * THE POISON ARTIST is an elegant, gripping, hair-raising gothic chiller, a wicked mix of Poe, The Silence of the Lambs, and Vertigo. Settle in for a long night of reading-once this one grabs you, it doesn't let go. * WILLIAM LANDAY, New York Times best-selling author of DEFENDING JACOB * this is a cinematic and phantasmagoric treat... Obsession and violent death collide in an elegantly written thriller. * THE INDEPENDENT * THE POISON ARTIST takes an old film noir set-up - man meets femme fatale and starts to fear that she might be even more dangerous than she looks - and brings it into the modern world...a superior cat and mouse story, with an effective twist in the tail. * MAIL ON SUNDAY * Moore has a great gift for the macabre and the creepy. * THE TIMES * ... recalling not only Poe and West Coast noir, but also literary tales of heroes besotted with belle dames sans merci. * SUNDAY TIMES * With its crisp, vivid writing - not a word is wasted - and multi-layered plotting, The Poison Artist is as satisfying as it is deeply unsettling. Moore has conjured a disjointed but gorgeous absinthe dream that enfolds the reader like a deadly fog. Highly recommended. * GUARDIAN * Spiralling down from dream into nightmare, The Poison Artist is thoroughly unnerving and classily executed. * THE OBSERVER * ...this thriller's twists become as dark and intoxicating as the bars where the mystery begins. * SUNDAY MIRROR *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Orion Publishing Co
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 133 mm
Width: 200 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
254 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4091-5973-5 (9781409159735)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Jonathan Moore and his wife live in Hawaii. When he's not writing, or fixing his boat, Jonathan is an attorney. Before completing law school in New Orleans, he was an English teacher, a whitewater raft guide on the Rio Grande, a counsellor at a Texas wilderness camp for juvenile delinquents, and an investigator for a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C.
Find out more at jonathanmoorefiction.com and follow Jonathan on Twitter @JonMooreFiction
Find out more at jonathanmoorefiction.com and follow Jonathan on Twitter @JonMooreFiction