I’m really pleased to be providing an extract from Turncoat by Anthony J. Quinn, the author of the critically acclaimed Detective Celcius Daly series published by Head of Zeus. His debut novel Disappeared was Daily Mail Crime Novel of the Year and one of the Sunday Times’ Best Books of the Year. Anthony J Quinn has been nominated for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the US Strand Literary Award.

Please keep scrolling for a short extract from TURNCOAT…

Blurb

The sole survivor of a murderous ambush, a Belfast police detective is forced into a desperate search for a mysterious informer that takes him to a holy island on Lough Derg, a place shrouded in strange mists and hazy rain, where nothing is as it first appears to be.

A keeper of secrets and a purveyor of lies, the detective finds himself surrounded by enemies disguised as pilgrims, and is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the purgatorial island, where he is forced to confront a series of disturbing secrets and ghosts in his own life.

Haunting and unsettling, Turncoat probes the legacy of the Troubles, the loss of collective memories and the moral consequences for the individual. It is a story of guilt, survival and the terrible price of self-knowledge, told through the voice of a detective with a double life.
Descending into paranoia, he uncovers a sinister panorama of cover-ups and conspiracies. The closer he edges to the truth, the deeper he is drawn into the currents of power, violence and guilt engulfing his country…

THE EXTRACT

Irish Border, 1994

When the car carrying him and his police colleagues turned into the lane shortly after ten o’clock, the driver killed the headlights and let the vehicle roll along the track. Moments later, the bulk of the derelict farmhouse and its outbuildings swung into view, a collection of grey fragments tucked away amid the gloom of blackthorn and elder thickets. There was just enough moonlight for him to make out the smooth shapes of two white horses, their heads bowed together, standing eerily calm amid the thorns, as though they belonged to a dream or a different dimension.

He told the other detectives to remain in the car and stepped outside. He stared at the horses, which were hardly trembling at all in his presence, and then at the windows of the house, the broken panes covering sheets of blackness, the front door hanging slightly ajar, everything about the place receding into shadow or floating against the dishevelled pattern of silhouettes. He felt a flicker of fear in his stomach. He glanced back at the car and saw the face of Special Branch Detective Ian Robinson watching him closely, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. The insolent pleasure in the detective’s gaze made his skin prickle, but it also had the effect of galvanising him.

For the past month, he had grown used to Robinson being his tail, asking probing questions about his investigations, following him wherever he went with his set stare, lingering he stayed. He dreaded to think what his mistakes and failures might look like through the eyes of this cold and attentive shadow, a detective who had advanced his career by patiently watching and waiting for Catholic officers like him to step over invisible lines of loyalty and political allegiance.

Praise for Anthony J. Quinn

The Troubles of Northern Ireland are not over. They may no longer reach the headlines, but they continue to damage lives and memories. This is the message so disturbingly, convincingly and elegantly conveyed in Anthony Quinn’s first novel, Disappeared … Beautifully haunting’ – Times

‘Hypnotically expressive… irresistible crime thriller’ – Independent

‘This is a novel to be read slowly and to be savoured sip by sip, as its spider’s web slowly but surely snares you in its grip’ – Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail on Disappeared

‘A tough yet lyrical novel’ – Sunday Times on Disappeared
‘Quinn’s knowledge of post-Troubles Northern Ireland effortlessly converts itself into an effective thriller’ – Publishers Weekly