From critically acclaimed author Walters comes a blistering new suspense novel about the horrors of war and the struggle to survive in the face of pure evil.
A blistering new thriller about the horrors of war and the struggle to survive in the face of pure evil. Foreign correspondent Connie Burns is hunting a British mercenary that she believes is responsible for the rape and murder of five women in Sierra Leone in 2002. Two years later she finds him training Iraqi police in Baghdad. Connie is determined to expose his crimes, but then she is kidnapped and released after three days of unspeakable torture. Silently, she returns to England and attempts to isolate herself, but it soon becomes apparent that the horrors of the world and her own nightmarish past aren’t so easy to escape from.
“"The Devil's Featherseems like a mystery intent on being politically timely. But because Walters is a far better writer than that, her new novel is much more, dealing with the timeless theme of victimization . . . With a casual, easy-to-read writing style, Walters is a rare breed: the kind of author who can concoct believable characters and set them down in the middle of entertaining plots that address timeless moral issues." Dorman T. Shindler,Denver Post "A scary thriller . . . Walters [has the] ability to use horror-movie logic to terrifying effect." The New Yorker "Some of today's best young writers are moving the crime novel in the direction of the social novel, examining individual crimes against a background of larger injustice [and]The Devil's Feathermoves in this direction . . . Its strongest scenes offer searing realism: rape and murder in Sierra Leone and Iraq, and flashbacks to Burns's family losing its Zimbabwe farm to thugs supported by the Mugabe regime. Those episodes have urgency and bite . . . Walters is a talented writer." Patrick Anderson,The Washington Post "Walters keeps the details [of her heroine's kidnapping] chillingly vague . . . While awaiting herEye of the Needlereckoning with MacKenzie, [Burns] unravels an appalling local crime. Walters gracefully balances crowd-pleasing theatrics with a wickedly ambiguous ending." Entertainment Weekly(EW pick) "The number of high-grade thrillers set in and around the horrors of Iraq increases as writers catch up with the real crimes behind the headlines. Minette Walters' excellent new contribution,The Devil's Feather,begins in 2004 [in] Baghdad . . . Trying to recover her mental stability in a strange, haunted house in Dorset, England, Burns makes friends with some supportive residents and waitsas do wefor the inevitable return of her once and future nemesis. [The ending] certainly is worth waiting around for." Dick Adler,Chicago Tribune "Readers can count on Britain's Minette Walters for a steady stream of creepiness. Her latest novel,The Devil's Feather, fills that quotient and then some . . . It's all chilling stuff, and it's everything Walters' fans have come to expect. Neither a series maker nor a formula writer, Walters makes her mysteries works of wide variety. But all are marked by a full measure of suspense and a hint of ambiguity . . . A fulfilling read." Jay Strafford,Richmond Times-Dispatch "At one time, all it took to produce a page-turner was a clever variation on the standard formula of a plucky woman outwitting her maniacal stalker. But thanks to writers like Minette Walters, who keep pushing the boundaries, the old conventions are now more likely to be used as structural support for an analysis of timely social and political issues . . . [The Devil's Featherhas a] psychologically complex protagonist [and] multilayered plot . . . The story is so involving, with its graphic accounts of mind control and sensitive observations about victim psychology, that you hardly realize how skillfully Walters has worked her unifying theme into three intersecting plot lines . . . She takes the suspense novel into new territory." Marilyn Stasio,New York Times Book Review "[A] harrowing psychological thriller . . . Walters delivers an intense, engrossingly structured tour de force about survival and 'the secret of freedom, courage.'" Publishers Weekly(starred) "Have cu”
“Intriguing. . . . Insightful. . . . A worthy rival to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell.”—People“She takes the suspense novel into new territory.”—New York Times Book Review“Walters gracefully balances crowd-pleasing theatrics with a wickedly ambiguous ending.”—Entertainment Weekly “Terrifying. . . . [A] scary thriller.” —The New Yorker
Minette Walters is the author of 11 novels, 2 novellas, and a number of short stories. Her work, which has received several major awards, has been published in more than thirty-five countries, and has been adapted for television to critical acclaim.
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