Without Warning
It was years ago, in the town of Maritime, that the secrets of the Pullman home were discovered, when Joe’s father was dragged off by the police, convicted for life for the brutal murder of a young boy.
Joe has moved on, a father himself and – as the town undertaker and a council member – a respected citizen of Henderson, Maryland. But he still wears the scars of his father’s abuse, and the memories of the summer when he found a way to make it all stop are bleeding back into the present. Living in the local boarding house, desperately hiding the crisis in his marriage from Henderson’s gossips, Joe decides to confront his past, only to discover that his past has beaten him to it …
Without Warning is a unique and terrifying thriller. Written with unstinting empathy, this is the brutal, unforgettable story of a fragile life cracked by the reverberations of trauma but somehow held in place by a simple human dignity.
Without Warning, Jonathan Cape, London.
Joe has moved on, a father himself and – as the town undertaker and a council member – a respected citizen of Henderson, Maryland. But he still wears the scars of his father’s abuse, and the memories of the summer when he found a way to make it all stop are bleeding back into the present. Living in the local boarding house, desperately hiding the crisis in his marriage from Henderson’s gossips, Joe decides to confront his past, only to discover that his past has beaten him to it …
Without Warning is a unique and terrifying thriller. Written with unstinting empathy, this is the brutal, unforgettable story of a fragile life cracked by the reverberations of trauma but somehow held in place by a simple human dignity.
Without Warning, Jonathan Cape, London.
Summer of the Cicada
It’s 1987 and Joseph Pullman and his parents have just moved to Maritime, Maryland. This is white-picket-fence America, but for fifteen-year old Joseph the threat of violence at home is as unrelenting as the punishment he receives at school, and his mother is slowly slipping away from reality. Joseph forms an uneasy friendship with the awkward Dean Gillespie and the boys occupy themselves burying animal corpses at the Killing Tree. This is the summer the cicadas are due to come out of their seventeen-year hibernation and Joseph becomes convinced that their arrival will bring his salvation. Meanwhile, Mother is gone and Joseph’s father has retreated to his basement workshop. When a local boy goes missing and is finally found unconscious in the woods, Maritime is shaken. Then a second boy disappears and the residents of the town are forced to confront the secrets of the Pullmans’ house.
Summer of the Cicada, Jonathan Cape, London.
Reviews
'Brilliantly disturbing’ Scotsman ‘Supremely well imagined…Frequently brilliant and consistently unsettling, Summer of the Cicada will remain with you for quite a while’ Independent
‘The power of the world Summer of the Cicada creates is bleak and undeniable’ Sunday Herald
'An American version of Iain Banks' Wasp Factory' Rachel Hore, Guardian
'The most successful aspect of the book is its voicing; Joseph's numbed endurance, with fury roiling beneath the surface is both dignified and plausible.' Jane Stevenson, Scotland on Sunday
'The opening scene of Summer of the Cicada lodges itself in the mind and stays there until the final page... the ferocity of the violence, combined with the matter-of-fact way the scene unfolds, leaves an unforgettble impression... It is a measure of the artistry Will Napier brings to his first novel that the harrowing subject matter does not make for a depressing read' Julia Flynn, Sunday Telegraph
Summer of the Cicada, Jonathan Cape, London.
Reviews
'Brilliantly disturbing’ Scotsman ‘Supremely well imagined…Frequently brilliant and consistently unsettling, Summer of the Cicada will remain with you for quite a while’ Independent
‘The power of the world Summer of the Cicada creates is bleak and undeniable’ Sunday Herald
'An American version of Iain Banks' Wasp Factory' Rachel Hore, Guardian
'The most successful aspect of the book is its voicing; Joseph's numbed endurance, with fury roiling beneath the surface is both dignified and plausible.' Jane Stevenson, Scotland on Sunday
'The opening scene of Summer of the Cicada lodges itself in the mind and stays there until the final page... the ferocity of the violence, combined with the matter-of-fact way the scene unfolds, leaves an unforgettble impression... It is a measure of the artistry Will Napier brings to his first novel that the harrowing subject matter does not make for a depressing read' Julia Flynn, Sunday Telegraph