Saturday, August 26, 2006

Orion New Blood - Richard Burke

Richard Burke is the next author on the list for me to do a quick, 'what are they up to now' post.

Richard kindly dropped me an email recently to say that he now has a website. He is the author of two psychological thrillers : Frozen (2003) and Redemption (2006), both published by Orion.

When Matthew's wife Charlotte is kidnapped, his world is thrown into chaos. Who has taken her - and why? There are no demands made for her release, just a threat that if he calls the police, Charlotte will lose the baby she is carrying - and then Matthew will lose her. Matthew is paralysed, haunted by the gloating phonecalls of her captor. As a prison governor, Matthew is convinced that Charlotte's abduction may be related to his job. Unable to talk to anyone in authority, he resorts to the only help he can find - Monk, an ex-prisoner who appears to have gone straight since his release, but has underworld contacts Matthew can only guess at. It's a devil's pact, but time is running out...


When his childhood friend, Verity, is found at the foot of Beachy Head, barely alive, Harry's life is thrown into turmoil. He can't accept that the happy-go-lucky girl he grew up with would try to kill herself. He should know. He was closer to her than anyone, wasn't he? As Verity lies in a coma, damaged beyond repair, Harry is haunted by memories of their childhood and by the knowledge that what they once shared is lost for ever. With the help of his friend Adam and Verity's business partner Sam, Harry begins piecing together the last few weeks of Verity's life. Sam is as baffled as Harry, but Adam thinks Verity's suicide attempt was the inevitable consequence of a life which was clearly spiralling out of control. The deeper Harry gets, the more questions remain unanswered. Why was Verity's flat burgled? Why was she secretly seeing a psychiatrist? And, for Harry, the most haunting question of all: why did Verity kiss him, all those years ago, and then banish him from her life? If Harry can't find the answers, he may have to face the fact that perhaps he never really knew Verity at all...

(synopses from amazon.co.uk)

No comments: