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"A cool and twisted crime debut" from Claire McGowan

Claire McGowan's debut The Fall has been generating some great press coverage. Here are some highlights:

'The collision of two unfamiliar worlds is even more concussive in Claire McGowan’s debut novel, The Fall (Headline, £12.99), in which posh PR girl Charlotte ends up living with mixed-race serial-unemployed baby-in-care Keisha. McGowan makes the events leading up to this unlikely scenario plausible, as Charlotte’s banker fiancé, Dan, is accused of murdering a black nightclub owner and banged up, the money runs out, Charlotte’s friends desert her, and Keisha turns up with what might be the vital evidence needed to exonerate Dan.

It’s crime-novel-meets-Hampstead-novel but without the contrivances of the former genre and the navel-gazing of the latter. Funny and perfectly paced, the pervading sense of “there but for the grace of God go you” chills you to the bone.' Telegraph

‘McGowan writes utterly convincingly in three very different voices and she knows how to tell a cracking story. She will go far.’ Daily Mail

‘A cool and twisted crime debut.’ The Mirror

'McGowan's first novel is a perceptive examination of the after-effects of murder. Privileged, naïve Charlotte is obsessed with her imminent wedding, but her world falls apart when a coke-fuelled evening slumming it in a London club goes disastrously wrong and her banker fiancé Dan finds himself awaiting trial for murder. Subsequent events bring her into contact with Keisha, a mixed-race girl with a useless boyfriend and a child in care, and DC Matthew Hegarty who, after the pleasure of a successful collar has worn off, finds himself having second thoughts and falling for Charlotte. The characters are finely drawn, and it's concern for them, rather than for whodunnit, that provides the page-turning impetus in this promising debut.' The Guardian

‘You’ll be hooked from the first page, and all your friends will be queuing up to borrow it.’ Candis Magazine

’This new lady of crime is going to be big.’ Books and Writers

The Fall is published by Headline and you can find out more about Claire by reading her blog or by following her on Twitter @inkstainsclaire.

You can buy a copy of The Fall by clicking here.

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