New Releases by William Bayer

Tangier, a sweeping novel of romance and intrigue set in a fabled North African resort, may remind readers of the Alexandria Quartet. In this book Tangier is more than just a place; it is a city of unholy loves. Titled Europeans, Moroccan hustlers, aging former Nazis, decadents of every sort play out their rituals, competing for stunning lovers and social power. Their schemes and passions are a subject of fascination to the hero of the book, a brilliant young police inspector. But even as he is fascinated he is also repelled, searching always to understand the privileged foreign colony, to unravel its weave of secrets. He finds the key, finally, in the person of a beautiful Eurasian woman, whose own mysterious past he manages to unveil. Through her eyes he comes to see Tangier in a new way. Sustained by her love he rediscovers the city and finds a different role in it for himself. Against the drama of this love story other characters emerge: An America Consul becomes embroiled in an affair with his Vice-Consul''s wife. A retired British character actor strives to preserve his dignity as his friends betray him and he feels an intimation of his death. A Canadian gossip columnist struggles not to lose himself in the gay world of Tangier. There is a young Frenchman corrupted by his love for an older woman; a radical Arab surgeon; a fifth-rate Soviet spy-a "burnt-out case"; squabbling writers; cruel social arbiters; a male prostitute named "Pumpkin Pie". Watched closely by the police inspector as they slip in and out of each others'' lives, these and other characters ignore the storm that gathers slowly above their town. In the end it sweeps them up with dizzying force. Tangier is revealed in a violent and dazzling finale.

In this multi-layered psychological mystery, photographer Jason Poe is transfixed by a disturbing set of murals he encounters in the attic of an abandoned house, and resolves to uncover the secret behind them. "The murals hit me hard. First came terror, then awe. It was only after I’d taken them in that I began to feel their immense power." Jason Poe, a former war photographer, has been breaking into abandoned houses for an art project to document what previous tenants have left behind. One night he finds more than expected when he ascends to an attic and is confronted by a haunting set of murals. The murals cover all four walls of the cramped space and hypnotise Jason. Convinced there’s an important story behind them, he embarks upon a quest to identify their creator and uncover their meaning. To do so Jason recruits several friends, including Joan Nguyen, a reporter for Calista Times-Dispatch. As the team delve deeper they uncover a mystery involving accusations of satanism, police corruption, a scandal involving a wealthy Calista family, a series of contemporary arson attacks . . . and an enigmatic patient in a Swiss psychiatric clinic.

1882: Lou Andreas-Salome appears with Friedrich Nietzche in a photograph. Thirty years later, a student presents Salome with his own drawing of the photograph. Present Day: Tess''s life is put in jeopardy when the previous owner of her new Californian loft is found dead, and she uncovers a link to the Luzern photograph and the 1913 drawing.

Joel Barley, jeune artiste prometteur, tombe amoureux de Liv Anders, danseuse et tisserande. « Ce qui ne peut être dit doit être dansé. Ce qui ne peut être dansé doit être tissé. Et ce qui ne peut être tissé doit être imprimé dans la chair » : l’étrange mantra de Liv intrigue Joel ; de même lorsqu’elle affirme « dissimuler sa douleur dans ses tissages ». Lorsque Liv est tuée, il apparaît qu’elle avait bien dissimulé quelque chose dans l’une de ses compositions abstraites, et Joel, aidé de ses deux amis Justin et Kate, veut découvrir quoi.

In 1903, a tall woman with flashing Tartar eyes was the talk of military circles, newspaper offices and salons. Her name was Isabelle Eberhardt, and the life she actually led made her justifiably the object of the most scandalous gossip in Paris as well as in North Africa. This compelling novel, a fictionalized biography, tells her story––the story of a brave, self-destructive and sensual being with an irrepressible rage to live. Isabelle came to Tunis when she was 17, longing for fame as an author and discovering that her life could be the inspiration for her art. She converted to Islam and dressed as a man chiefly because it allowed her to wander freely and taste the delicacies of a forbidden existence. Her brief life encompassed an enormous range of experience. She joined a mystic religious sect and was nearly assassinated because of it, went to trial over the scandal and was forced to leave the country. She followed the French army into the Sahara as a journalist, insulted the great and the famous, spent sleepless nights in rapturous mystical prayer. When she died, at the age of 27, she was reputed to have slept with most of the Foreign Legion. Isabelle''s goal was to rediscover herself through her excesses, her fears and her joys, so that perhaps one day she might rend the veil which hid from her the secrets of eternity. This fascinating novel about her life proves admirably that the best of Isabelle Eberhardt lay in her energy and determination to dive into the midst of maelstrom and ride out the fury of her existence.

New York Times best-selling crime fiction writer William Bayer breaks new ground with this novel, a coming-of-age/psychological mystery. Hiding in the Weave, written from the perspective of eighteen-year-old Joel Barlev, a senior at Delamere, a school geared to talented young artists, plays off themes typically found in classic boarding school novels-requited and unrequited romantic relationships, alienation, rebellion, sexuality, troubled home lives, moral dilemmas, epiphanies and acquiring maturity. But there is more here. . . much more . . . . "What cannot be spoken shall be danced. What cannot be danced shall be woven. And what cannot be woven shall be marked upon the flesh." That's the strange mantra of Liv Anders, a gifted dancer and weaver at Delamere. Joel, an equally gifted ceramic artist, finds himself falling in love with her, intrigued by her ethereal beauty as well as by her casual comment regarding their different art forms: "You gouge your pots to show your pain to the world. I hide my pain in the weave." It turns out there is something hidden in one of Liv's abstract weavings, and when tragedy strikes, Joel and his two best friends, Justin and Kate, feel compelled to uncover it. The novel follows the four from the start of their senior year at Delamere through graduation and a little beyond. Hiding in the Weave is a novel for adults about the strivings of youth. . . love, passion, art, art-making, growing up and letting go. It takes the traditional coming-of-age boarding school novel into fascinating new territory.

Dans une ville trouble et sensuelle d'Afrique du Nord, des Européens décadents rivalisent de conquêtes sexuelles pour prendre le pouvoir au sein de la haute société. Leurs manigances et leurs passions fascinent un jeune inspecteur de police marocain.

Suite à un traumatisme, le photographe Geoffrey Barnett ne parvient plus à réaliser de portraits. Kimberly, modèle irrésistible, réussit à lui faire oublier son blocage, mais elle disparaît brutalement. En cherchant à la retrouver, et au fur et à mesure qu'il découvre qui était réellement Kimberly, Barnett plonge dans un univers déstabilisant, de plus en plus sulfureux...

Pam Barret est journaliste à la télévision. Mais on ne peut pas dire que sa carrière décolle. Jusqu'au jour où elle assiste à une scène proprement stupéfiante : en plein New York, une jeune patineuse est assommée et égorgée par un oiseau géant qui disparaît aussi vite qu'il est venu. Panique, stupeur, les témoins croient avoir rêvé, mais des touristes ont filmé l'attaque. Pam comprend qu'elle a une chance de faire la " une " en rapportant ces images insensées. Un ornithologue lui confirme bientôt que le " meurtrier " est un faucon pèlerin femelle, mais un spécimen anormalement grand, et jamais ce type d'oiseau ne fondrait sans raison sur un humain, encore moins pour le tuer. De plus, comment cet animal s'est-il perdu dans Manhattan ? Peut-être n'est-il pas perdu justement, et dans ce cas, l'affaire n'est plus du ressort des ornithologues mais de la police. Palpitant, envoûtant, ce thriller nous plonge dans le monde mystérieux de la fauconnerie. Une fois encore, Bayer fait preuve d'une maîtrise éblouissante. Paru à la série noire dans une version tronquée, ce livre a été intégralement retraduit.

Circling high over Rockefeller Center is a peregrine falcon, the most awesome of the flying predators. She awaits a signal from her falconer. It is given: the bird attacks, plummeting from the sky at nearly 200 miles an hour, striking a young woman and killing her instantly. So begins Peregrine, a chilling tale of obsession. By chance, newscaster Pamela Barrett witnesses the slaying. Her impassioned account of it on television that evening thrills the falconer, a brilliant madman who identifies with his deadly bird. He becomes fascinated with Pam and enmeshes her in a bizarre and deadly scheme even as she finds herself drawn to him by an erotic need she doesn''t understand. As killing follows killing, the police and the media engage in cutthroat competition to find the murderer. Two falcons fight to the death above Central Park. Call girls, rich eccentrics, dealers in the black market for rare birds--all play their roles in this study of secret passion, desire, fulfillment, and ecstasy.

Cap se consacre à la traque des satanistes. Un jour, après l''une de ses conférences, un jeune policier lui soumet un cas susceptible de l''intéresser. Dans une église de campagne isolée, fréquentée par une petite communauté noire, le pasteur a découvert un homme nu, de race blanche, suspendu par un pied à la traverse de la grande croix de bois dressée derrière l''autel. Sur le dallage, un pentacle a été tracé avec le sang de la victime. Ce signe bien particulier ramène Cap dix ans en arrière, au meurtre de sa propre fille. Les assassins n''ont jamais été arrêtés, mais Cap croit retrouver leur signature dans ce crime mis en scène comme une figure du tarot. Par l''auteur du Rêve des chevaux brisés, qui possède lui-même plus de quatre cents jeux de tarot.

"One hot summer afternoon a quarter century ago, a wealthy socialite and her young lover, a private-school teacher, were gunned down in a cheap motel room on the outskirts of the Midwestern city of Calista. Now, forensic sketch artist David Weiss has returned to his hometown to cover a routine celebrity murder trial for ABC."--Jacket.

The ritual was always the same. First, she would visit the abandoned mirror maze from her broken childhood. Then, she would drive into the city, pick up a stranger, drug, rob and humiliate him. Now one of her marks has been found murdered. And Detective Frank Janek must enter the labyrinth of a woman''s rage--to find the reflection of a killer''s wrath.

New York Police Lieutenant Frank Janek struggles to find who murdered his goddaughter and others in a series of vicious murders.

Récit criminel captivant quoique le dernier tiers manque d'épaisseur et que les scènes érotiques se multiplient.

Intricate thriller.

" Les premiers meurtres arrivèrent avec le printemps. " Au pied des murs de Jérusalem, on découvre le cadavre d'une prostituée, puis celui d'une religieuse américaine, d'un jeune Arabe ensuite, tous atrocement désarticulés et marqués de signes étranges. Crimes de maniaque ? Le commissaire David Bar-Lev aime la poésie, les femmes mystérieuses, les crimes difficiles à résoudre. Et par-dessus tout, il aime cette ville où il a grandi mais qu'il n'a jamais pu comprendre. Une ville menacée, il le pressent par un complot qui se dessine à mesure que l'enquête progresse, impliquant jusqu'à son propre entourage. Si David comprenait, le suicide de son frère s'éclaircirait peut-être, ainsi que le passé d'Anna, sa compagne, une musicienne soviétique émigrée ? La Jérusalem que nous fait découvrir William Bayer dans ce policier inquiétant d'une singulière humanité, n'est pas celle des guides touristiques mais un repaire chaotique de haines, de vices et de mensonges. Raison de plus pour espérer sa délivrance.

Kriminalroman.

60 films deserved to be called great.