Murther & Walking Spirits - Couverture souple

'I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.'So begins the story of Connor 'Gil' Gilmartin when he catches his wife in flagrante with the Sniffer, his former colleague and now his murderer. Unfortunately, death is only the first indignity Gil is about to suffer. For he lingers on as a ghost, and from this bleak vantage - made even less endurable by the fact that he must spend the afterlife sitting beside his killer at a film festival - he is forced to view the exploits and failures of his ancestors, from the forerunners who sailed up the Hudson to Canada during the American Revolution to his university-professor parents.

Will be recognized with the very best works of this century (New York Times Books Review)

Vintage Davies, employing a subtle feeling for family relationships and a genuine understanding of money and power while indulging in effortless intellectual acrobatics (Sunday Telegraph)

Davies' devotees will recognize at once the master's sharp ear for proverbial wisdoms, his relish for fantastical and dark linguistic corners, his magpie accumulations of odd bits of lore and historical tidbits (Observer)

An extraordinary tapestry of a book - richly layered, embroidered with detail and stitched together with skill and style (Time Out)