The Four Last Things
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
The first novel in Andrew Taylor’s ground-breaking Roth trilogy, which was adapted into the acclaimed drama Fallen Angel. A tense psychological thriller for fans of S J Watson.
Little Lucy Appleyard is snatched from her child minder’s on a cold winter afternoon, and the nightmare begins. When Eddie takes her home to beautiful, child-loving Angel, he knows he’s done the right thing. But Lucy’s not like their other visitors, and unwittingly she strikes through Angel’s defences to something both vulnerable and volatile at the core.
To the outside world Lucy has disappeared into a black hole with no clues to her whereabouts…until the first grisly discovery in a London graveyard. More such finds are to follow, all at religious sites, and, in a city haunted by religion, what do these offerings signify?
All that stands now between Lucy and the final sacrifice are a CID sergeant on the verge of disgrace and a woman cleric – Lucy’s parents – but how can they hope to halt the evil forces that are gathering around their innocent daughter?
Reviews
‘Andrew Taylor digs deep to explore the tangled roots of sex, violence and religion. This is a fine thriller, with clues complex enough to tax a Morse’ Reginald Hill
‘A tense and shocking psychological thriller, The Four Last Things is also a meditation on what religious belief means in times of extreme crisis, and a fascinating unravelling of the horrors the past can visit on the present.’ Val McDermid
‘Taylor has established a sound reputation for writing tense clammy novels that perceptively penetrate the human psyche. In The Four Last Things he goes deeper still… The appetite for the remaining two of the trilogy is firmly whetted’ The Times
About the author
Andrew Taylor is the author of a number of novels, including the Dougal and Lydmouth crime series, the psychological thrillers Bleeding Heart Square and The Anatomy of Ghosts, the ground-breaking Roth Trilogy, which was adapted into the acclaimed drama Fallen Angel, and The American Boy, his No. 1 bestselling historical novel which was a 2005 Richard & Judy Book Club choice.
He has won many awards, including the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger, an Edgar Scroll from the Mystery Writers of America, the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award (the only author to win it twice) and the CWA’s prestigious Diamond Dagger, awarded for sustained excellence in crime writing. He also writes for the Spectator.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While shifting points of view initially create a surface tension and the illusion of speed, Taylor's latest, the first installment of a trilogy, ultimately commands only slack attention. A child's kidnapping is at the heart of the story. From the beginning, it is clear that four-year-old Lucy Appleyard is going to be snatched. Shifting viewpoints introduce her parents--Sally Appleyard , a young deacon at St. George's in Kensal Vale, and her husband, Michael, a policeman. The Appleyards' marriage, already stressed, is subjected to pressures that will change it forever. The kidnappers are an odd pair: Eddie Grace is an introverted, passive, marginally functional pedophile; Angel Wharton is a manipulative, shrewd, violent schemer. Each shift ratchets the tension another notch as macabre clues in the form of body parts are found in various church settings and the police are unable to make any headway. Sally's faith, which led her to seek ordination in the Church of England, begins to desert her. The church, and the role of women in it, forms an integral part of the story. Taylor (An Air That Kills, 1995, etc.) touches on child sacrifice and the difference between insane religious fanaticism and genuine faith. But the plot is lurid, related in flat prose that just amplifies the schematic nature of this mediocre effort.
