Mr. Glamour [Paperback]

Richard Godwin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 24, 2012

Something dark is preying on the glitz of the glamour set. Chief Inspector Flare and his partner Steele investigate a series of bizarre killings targeting the wealthy and glamorous.  The killer in Mr. Glamour knows all about design and what brands mean to his victims.  As the police try to catch a predator who has climbed inside their heads, they find themselves up against a wall of secrecy. The investigation drives Flare and Steele - who are themselves harbouring secrets - to acts of darkness. And the killer is watching everyone, from the wealthy businessmen to their beautiful wives.  Who is Mr. Glamour?  This novel will keep you guessing until the unforeseeable end. 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Richard Godwin knows how his characters dress, what they drink and what they drive. He knows how they live--and how they die. Here's hoping no one recognized themselves in Godwin's cold canvas. Combines the fun of a good story with the joy of witty, vivid writing." HEYWOOD GOULD, director, screenwriter, author; current novel The Serial Killer's Daughter "Smart, scary, suspenseful enough for me to keep the light on until 3AM on a Sunday night, Richard Godwin once more proves to fans of crime fiction the world over with Mr. Glamour, that he is not only one of the best contemporary writers of the procedural cop thriller around today, he is a master storyteller." VINCENT ZANDRI, author of Scream Catcher "Richard Godwin's top-of-the-line psychological police procedural driven by its heady pace, steely dialogue, and unsparing vision transfixes the reader from page one." ED LYNSKEY, author of Skin In The Game "This first rate detective thriller will have you gripped from the start. Richard Godwin is an author not to be missed." SHEILA QUIGLEY, author of Thorn In My Side "Mr Glamour is, in every sense of the word, the real McCoy: genuine hard-boiled detective fiction - Lean, gritty, and tough, it's a journey into the heart of darkness - you won't soon forget. Connoisseurs of Nouveau Noir will have to add Richard Godwin to the list of writers to watch!" C E LAWRENCE, author of Silent Kills "Involving and compellingly sinister, Richard Godwin's Mr. Glamour portrays cops and criminals, the mad and the driven in a novel of psychological noir." GARY PHILLIPS, author of Treacherous: Grifters, Ruffians and Killers "Mr. Glamour is a striking effort from one of the most daring crime writers in the business. It is the noirest of noir...and hellishly addictive." MIKE STAFFORD, BookGeeks Magazine "In the world of the uber rich it's all about image. Wearing the right clothes, driving the right car, dining at the right restaurants, being seen at the right hot spots and vacation locales. The fabulously wealthy know they are constantly being watched; that's the point. See and be seen, the more conspicuously the better. If only they knew he was watching them. Studying them. Photographing them. Obsessing over them. Mr. Glamour knows what matters to the jet set, understands their slavish dedication to brands and image. He understands because he wants it as well. When the bodies of London's jet set being turning up murdered and mutilated, Detective Chief Inspector Flare and his partner Inspector Steele find themselves investigating what evolves into an increasingly horrific string of murders. And though it seems obvious the killings are linked, Flare and Steele are met with a wall of silence from those closest to the victims, the very people who may be next on the killer's list. Mr. Glamour is a bold piece of writing, one which both challenges readers' perceptions as well as cements Godwin's status as a master of the dark and disturbing." ELIZABETH A. WHITE, Reviewer "A very compelling mystery. When the author decided the time was right for me, the reader, to finally understand the scope of the actual crimes and their meaning, I was pleased. But after that moment, there was still a good deal more to come in the last pages, bringing the reasons for the killings completely into the light, and answering all the questions I had about why the killer did what he did. This was very well written, and I have to say, one of the best paced books I have ever read." TARA FOX HALL, Good Book Alert

About the Author

Richard Godwin is the author of crime novel 'Apostle Rising', which has just sold foreign rights to the largest publisher in Hungary and has received excellent reviews world wide. He is a crime and horror writer as well as a produced playwright. He was born in London and obtained a BA and MA in English and American Literature from King's College London. He has travelled the world extensively and lectured and worked in property. He is a widely published author with 14 distinct works to his name. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, not least recently the Tarrantino-based series of sketches, 'Pulp Ink', and 'The Big Book Of Bizarro'. He is an author who is adept in many styles, as well as a skilled interviewer, and he publishes his interviews with other authors as Chin Wags At The Slaughterhouse.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Black Jackal Books Ltd (March 24, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0956711332
• ISBN-13: 978-0956711335
• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.5 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,678,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Dark and Dangerous Killer, A Madman unleashed March 26, 2012

By TicToc

Format:Paperback

Article first published as Book Review:Mr. Glamour by Richard Godwin on Blogcritics.

Madness and psychosis has many forms. Surfing the internet you often come across many strange and bizarre behaviors that are eerie and horrific, but we rarely have those occurrences happen to us or those we know.

In Mr. Glamour by Richard Godwin, he brings us face to face with many of our own fears and nightmares. When a wealthy group of friends seemed to be targeted for murder in the most macabre fashion what begins as a horrific murder mystery turns into a chilling and strange spiral into the innermost darkness of the mind of madness. The only things about the murders that connect them are the fact that the people know one another and are friends, and the fashion in which they are murdered and then posed in some strange fashion. These two things assure the police they have a serial killer, and yet there are enough differences that even that is suspect at times. Is there more than one killer?

DCI Jackson Flare and Inspector Mandy Steele are assigned to investigate the murders, and as the killer finds a way to invade their own thoughts they find themselves fighting the darkness within as they delve further into the dangerous mystery of a murderer who seems to have the entire team stumped. Can they find him before he kills again? Will the darkness they try to hide in their own lives come spilling out in the case, ruining them and their careers, like the secrets that are coming out with the murders?

Godwin has delivered with a horror filled story that keeps you guessing to the very end. His characters are well written, and while they often embody the things we dislike about those who believe money can buy it all, they also have characteristics that draw you to them as well. This makes the horror even more incredible because Godwin has a way of making you know the victim. There are numerous variables that keep you wondering where the killer is, but the red herrings create such a haze of smoke and mirrors that the perpetrator remains elusive until the very end.

The horror is the stuff of nightmares and Godwin's detailed rendering of the murders are both creepy and impressive. The ideas and story are interesting and solid, built with an eye to credibility.
If you enjoy murder mysteries and even a bit of horror in your reading this is the work to find. Godwin's depiction is well done and will keep you up with every light turned on well into the night.

This book was received free from the publisher. All opinions are my own based off my reading and understanding of the material.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars London Giallo April 24, 2012

By Paul D Brazill

Format:Paperback

'Paul De Longe put the phone down and opened a bottle of Morey-Blanc. It was cold and smooth and biscuity.Below him the skyline of London stretched out like an inviting mistress.'

London kills you. Kills the best of us. And the worst.

And in Richard Godwin's second novel, the brilliantly vivid giallo, Mr Glamour, the streets of London aren't so much paved with gold, as splattered with blood that leaves a trail from the pavement to the penthouse. And back again.

Mr Glamour's London is the London of Hitchcock's Frenzy, Roeg's Performance and The Picture Of Dorian Grey. It is a living, pulsating thing that is being sliced to pieces, from swanky Mayfair and Holland Park to suburban Acton, from Wandsworth prison to Earls Court bedsits and East End boozers.

And in Mr Glamour, everyone is scarred, including the books' protagonists, Chief Inspector Jackson Flare and his partner Inspector Mandy Steele. Though Flares scars are mostly physical, Steel hides her psychological damage.

When Flare and Steel are called to investigate the murder of a rich big shot, whose body has been ripped apart and left next to his gleaming Maserati, they soon realize that they are a hunting a serial killer who is preying on the rich, the powerful, the glamorous.

Richard Godwin's Mr Glamour is a graphic,intense, at times delirious journey into the dark sides of London's glitz and of the human psyche and is highly recommended for those of a STRONG disposition.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Master in the genre of dark mayhem March 2, 2013

By B. R. Stateham

Format:Paperback

I've read Richard Godwin's work and actually know the man. Know his talent. Know this book. The first thing you note when you read Mr. Glamour is the way the book flows along effortlessly. Weaves a tale of so precise, so compelling, you don't realize how far you are along in the book until exhaustion overtakes you. Or the last page of the novel is done. Writing so precisely to create the illusion of effortless reading is the sign of a master at work. Richard is that kind of writer.

This is a fantastic novel. From a fantastic writer. I'm positive you'll become an avid Richard Godwin fan the moment you begin reading.