Anne Meredith – författare

'Powerful and impressive ...there is a fine inevitability in the plot structure which gives it true tragic quality' - Dorothy L. SayersAdrian Gray was born in May 1862 and met his death through violence, at the hands of one of his own children, at Christmas, 1931. Thus begins a classic crime novel published in 1933, a riveting portrait of the psychology of a murderer. Each December, Adrian Gray invites his extended family to stay at his lonely house, Kings Poplars. None of Gray's six surviving children is fond of him; several have cause to wish him dead. The family gathers on Christmas Eve - and by the following morning, their wish has been granted. This fascinating and unusual novel tells the story of what happened that dark Christmas night; and what the murderer did next.

Donna Tart meets E.L. James in a darkly seductive debut: When a mysterious young woman comes between two married professors, their carefully crafted cat-and-mouse game crumbles, as prey becomes predator.It’s the summer of 1986 on the Kelsey College campus. Sam and Vera Ward got married decades ago and haven't slept together since. With little desire to satiate Sam's sexual appetite, Vera agrees to a certain tradition at the start of every school year. Sam is allowed to sleep with one woman of his choosing, with two ground rules: she must be a student at the college, and the affair cannot last beyond a year. This year, their target is a mysterious young woman named Jade who, unbeknownst to The Wards, is a hand grenade poised to destroy everything they've carefully built.Alluring and sharp as a tack, Jade breaks all their rules. With a plan of her own, she holds Sam in the palm of her hand, and Vera gripped in a dance of obsession and desire. What unfolds is not a romance but a reckoning, where every touch conceals a move, and every secret becomes a weapon, spiraling into an explosive ending that will leave Vera, Jade, and Sam completely undone.Jaded is an electric, provocative novel about power, the abuse of and submission to it, in which each character is forced to confront the messy web of complicity, lies, and lust in which they have, each, unwittingly entangled themselves.

»Mitreißend und beeindruckend« Dorothy L. SayersEngland 1931, ein verschneites Landhaus am Weihnachtsabend, eine zerstrittene Familie, ein Mord. Wer tötete Adrian Gray? Ein psychologischer Kriminalroman in der Tradition von Agatha Christie. Im Original 1933 erschienen und nun erstmals auf Deutsch.Jedes Jahr im Dezember lädt das ebenso greise wie geizige Familienoberhaupt Adrian Gray die gesamte Verwandtschaft samt Anhang in sein abgelegenes Landhaus King''s Polar ein. Und alle kommen, weil sie auf sein Geld aus sind, obwohl fast jeder einen Grund hat, ihn zu hassen. An Heiligabend versammelt sich die Familie wie gewohnt, nur dass am nächsten Morgen Gray ermordet aufgefunden wird. Hat sich eines seiner sechs Kinder seinen Weihnachtswunsch selbst erfüllt? Dieser nostalgische und ungewöhnliche Kriminalroman erzählt die Geschichte einer dunklen Weihnachtsnacht.