Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press

From “one of the best authors of espionage fiction” (Wall Street Journal), a book of deception and money to be made amid the rubble of World War IIFrom an author whose books have been described as “one of the great pleasures of modern spy fiction” by Slow Horses author Mick Herron and compared to the works of Alan Furst, Phillip Kerr, and Joseph Kanon, in Smoke and Embers John Lawton turns to the murky days, weeks and years following the end of World War II in Germany, Britain, and beyond. Smoke and Embers is the ninth installment of the beloved Inspector Troy series, and opens in 1950, when Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Troy learns that his sergeant has been conducting an affair with the known mistress of infamous London racketeer Otto Ohnherz. Troy is immediately intrigued by the mysterious origins of Ohnherz’s second-in-command, Jay Fabian, who is a major contributor to all three British political parties and claims to have survived the concentration camps—yet he lacks proof beyond his word. So begins a novel of duplicity and reinvention in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust, with each chapter adding a new layer of intrigue. With a twisting plotline, crackling dialogue, characteristic humor, and the return of beloved characters, Smoke and Embers is an exciting new addition to John Lawton’s masterful canon.

“Like the love child of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle . . . delightful to read.”—NPR.org, on The ForgersA gripping literary thriller that brings readers inside the world of expert forgery, rivalrous fury, and generations of dark family secrets, with Mary Shelley’s voice and life woven throughoutLiterary forger Henry Slader, assaulted and presumed dead by his longtime nemesis, Will, awakens in a shallow grave, suffocating in dirt. Concussed and disoriented, Slader exhumes himself and sets out to exact revenge on his rival, orchestrate Will’s downfall, and make a fortune along the way—armed with a devastating secret about Will’s past. Slader quickly draws in Will’s daughter, Nicole, wielding his threats against her father to blackmail her into forging inscriptions by such authors as Poe, Hemingway, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. As Nicole’s skill grows, so does her devotion to—and doubts about—her father’s integrity, until she commits the ultimate betrayal for the sake of his freedom. With breathtakingly precise background knowledge and virtuoso execution, Nicole forges a suite of brilliantly convincing and surpassingly valuable letters by Frankenstein author Mary Shelley—planting within them the seeds of Slader’s doom.Moving between upstate New York, a village in Ireland, London, and ending in a shocking standoff at the site of Mary Shelley’s grave in a coastal town in Southern England, The Forger’s Requiem is both a compelling standalone novel and the crescendo ending to the trilogy Joyce Carol Oates has called “lethally enthralling to read.”

?Like the love child of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle . . . delightful to read.??NPR.org, on The ForgersA gripping literary thriller that brings readers inside the world of expert forgery, rivalrous fury, and generations of dark family secrets, with Mary Shelley?s voice and life woven throughoutLiterary forger Henry Slader, assaulted and presumed dead by his longtime nemesis, Will, awakens in a shallow grave, suffocating in dirt. Concussed and disoriented, Slader exhumes himself and sets out to exact revenge on his rival, orchestrate Will?s downfall, and make a fortune along the way?armed with a devastating secret about Will?s past.Slader quickly draws in Will?s daughter, Nicole, wielding his threats against her father to blackmail her into forging inscriptions by such authors as Poe, Hemingway, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. As Nicole?s skill grows, so does her devotion to?and doubts about?her father?s integrity, until she commits the ultimate betrayal for the sake of his freedom. With breathtakingly precise background knowledge and virtuoso execution, Nicole forges a suite of brilliantly convincing and surpassingly valuable letters by Frankenstein author Mary Shelley?planting within them the seeds of Slader?s doom.Moving between upstate New York, a village in Ireland, London, and ending in a shocking standoff at the site of Mary Shelley?s grave in a coastal town in Southern England, The Forger?s Requiem is both a compelling standalone novel and the crescendo ending to the trilogy Joyce Carol Oates has called ?lethally enthralling to read.?

Other people kill their husbands. Not her.?A darkly clever thriller about women?s thwarted ambitions, celebrity, the Time?s Up movement and revenge.??People (Book of the Week)In Invisible Woman, a dangerous secret held for too long between estranged best friends rises to the surface, and a long marriage comes apart with devastating consequences.Joni Ackerman?s decision to raise children, 25 years ago, came with a steep cost. She was then a pioneering filmmaker, one of the few women to break into the all-male Hollywood club of feature film directors. But she and her husband Paul had always wanted a family, and his ascending career at a premier television network provided a safety net. Now they?ve recently transplanted to Brooklyn, so that Paul can launch a major East Coast production studio, when a scandal rocks the film industry and forces Joni to revisit a secret from long ago involving her friend Val.Joni is adamant that the time has come to tell the story, but Val and Paul are reluctant, for different reasons. As the marriage frays and the friends spar about whether to speak up, Joni?s struggles with isolation in a new city, and old resentments about the sacrifices she made on her family?s behalf start to boil over. She takes solace, of sorts, in the novels of Patricia Highsmith?particularly the masterpiece Strangers on a Train, with its duplicitous characters and their murderous impulses?until the lines between reality and fantasy become blurred.Invisible Woman is at once a literary thriller about the lies we tell each other (and ourselves), and a powerful psychological examination of the complexities of friendship, marriage, and motherhood.