Blood Work

Delaney's phone trilled in his pocket and he flicked it out to answer it. 'Delaney.'

The voice on the other end of the line took him straight back to that childhood, almost as if he had summoned it. Took him back to a day of sunshine and wonders and joy at the world.

'Jack, it's Mary, your cousin Mary. I need your help,' she said.

And at that moment a crow took off from the roof of the court building behind them, its dusty wings flapping like shook canvas in the bright, still air, and its caw like the mockery of God.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This is a work of fiction and although all of the characters are indeed fictional some of the places mentioned within are real – so firstly a big apology to London! One of the most diverse, exhilarating and dynamic cities on the planet, and yet in these pages it comes across as rather a bleak place, to say the least; but all cities are viewed through different eyes and Jack Delaney's are a little more bloodshot and jaundiced than most. Some of the places mentioned in the book, however, are not real. Delaney works out of an entirely fictional police station and The Pig and Whistle is a pub that, sadly, does not exist; likewise a curious tourist would struggle to find South Hampstead Common or South Hampstead Tube or the Royal South Hampstead Hospital, but they would be well rewarded indeed, however, if they decided to check if the Holly Bush pub really did add a dash of wine to their Bloody Marys!

A lot of people should be thanked for the hard work they have put into bringing Blood Work to the bookshelf. And so, many thanks to James Nightingale, Tess Callaway and the lovely Caroline Gascoigne for their incredible help and support, the sales and marketing team from Hutchinson who did so much to get Jack Delaney out amongst the public, Justine for her eagle eye, Anna Hughes who handled the baton like an Olympiad and Robert Caskie for his continual encouragement and advice. Lucie Birnie of Lucy's Cafe for making me big in the Runtons and especially Lynn Butler for keeping my spirits high and the decanter full!

But the biggest thanks to you the reader, without whom Jack Delaney would just be a sad and bitter man, mumbling incoherently to himself in the corner of an empty bar as he sips his solitary pint.

MP

ALSO AVAILABLE IN ARROW, A COLLECTION OF COMING-OF-AGE STORIES FROM SOME OF THE MASTERS OF CRIME FICTION, SELECTED AND EDITED BY JOHN HARVEY

Men From Boys

'Terrific tales' Independent on Sunday

Featuring Mark Billingham, Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, John Harvey, Reginald Hill, Bill James, Dennis Lehane, George P. Pelecanos, Peter Robinson, James Sallis, John Straley, Brian Thompson, Don Winslow, Daniel Woodrell and a novella by Andrew Coburn.

Little is perfect for the men in these seventeen crime stories and nothing is straightforward. The worlds they inhabit are as different as a deprived London housing estate and a rundown jazz joint in Manhattan, but each of them is striving to determine what is right, what will given them dignity, what will earn them self-respect. Some succeed. Others fail.

In this acclaimed collection of stories, John Harvey has gathered together some of the very best names in contemporary crime writing. Together thse writers answer what it is to be a father, a son, a man.

'Bonus points to Harvey as editor for taste, virtuosity and some weird kind of compatibility-spotting which detects kinship between the most dissimilar authors. An original, outstanding collection – readable and rewarding from start to finish' Literary Review

ALSO AVAILABLE IN ARROW

Triptych