The Devil of Nanking
an extraordinary, electrifying thriller by one of Britain's bestselling crime-writers
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4.4 • 25 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
Fans of Stephen King, Stuart MacBride and Karin Slaughter will devour this warped and brutally bloodthirstly thriller from bestselling and prize-winning author Mo Hayder. Deeply haunting, this will stay with you well after the final page is turned...
'Haunting, lyrical, disturbing, important, suspenseful and wonderfully written' -- HARLAN COBEN
'Left me stunned and haunted. This is writing of breathtaking power and poetry' --
TESS GERRITSEN
'Couldn't put it down' -- ***** Reader review
'One of the best books I have read in a long time' -- ***** Reader review
'Weird, creepy, vile......brilliant!!!!!' -- ***** Reader review
'An absolutely brilliant book. Read it NOW!' -- ***** Reader review
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1990: Tokyo
Grey Hutchins is in pursuit of an obsession. She is searching for a piece of film taken during the infamous Nanking massacre of 1937. Some say it never existed. Grey is certain that it does, and that it lies hidden - somewhere in Tokyo.
Alone in an alien city, Grey becomes a hostess in an exclusive club catering for Japanese businessmen - and gangsters. One gangster dominates - an old man in a wheelchair surrounded by a terrifying entourage - who is rumoured to rely on a powerful elixir for his continued health. It is an elixir that others want - at any price ...
Previously published as Tokyo, The Devil of Nanking is a literary thriller of the highest order. With its heady atmosphere of overt violence, lurking fear and sexual tension, this is a novel that takes hold of the reader and does not let go until its explosive final pages.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From its start in 1937, as the Japanese overrun the Chinese port of Nanking and massacre hundreds of thousands, to its narrative core in 1990, as a disturbed young British woman who calls herself Grey searches for the hidden truths that made her the mentally fragile person she is, Hayder's third book (after 2002's The Treatment) is a thriller of rare art and gripping excitement. Hayder, one of the rising stars of British crime fiction, teaches at a university in Bath and has worked as a hostess in a Tokyo nightclub. Both experiences add to her book's unusually rich atmosphere. Grey, who lives on the fringes of the academic world, tries to find out in Tokyo whether a piece of 16mm film taken during the Nanking atrocities actually exists and whether it will ease her pain. When an elderly Chinese professor, a survivor of Nanking, at first refuses to help her, she drifts into a well-paying job as a night club hostess. (Russian twin sisters Irina and Svetlana teach her the tricks of the trade. "You gotta look sophisticated," Svetlana tells her earnestly. "You wanna wear my belt, eh? My belt is gold. Black and gold nice!") Eventually, the story becomes a beautifully paced, three-way duel among an aged Japanese gangster who wants to live forever; the Chinese professor, with secrets too horrible to hide any longer; and Grey, a courageous young woman unlike any other heroine you're likely to find in a thriller.
Customer Reviews
What a read.
Eye opening, captivating and heartbreaking!
Mo pulls you in and keeps you until the very end.