Alice Thompson
Alice Thompson grew up in Edinburgh and read English at Oxford University. She played keyboard with the band, The Woodentops, and is the author of four novels: Justine (1996), winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction); Pandora’s Box (1998); Pharos (2002); and The Falconer (2008).
She was formerly Writer in Residence for Shetland and in 2000, won a Creative Scotland Award. She teaches creative writing at the Arvon Foundation. She lives in Edinburgh.
http://www.alicethompson1.wordpress.com
Praise for Alice Thompson’s novels
‘Cunning, clever, unbelievably casually complex – this is it: the intellectual future of British writing.’ Ali Smith, The Scotsman.
‘Elegantly spare ... radically different in plot, style and language ... Thompson is one of the more original and idiosyncratic new voices in fiction.’ Patricia Nicol, Sunday Times.
‘Thompson writes with a detached clarity that is liquid and sensual.’ Rosemary Goring, Scotland on Sunday.
‘Our reading is deliberately made uneasy and uncertain ... but the elegance and accuracy with which Thompson uses language is formidable.’ The Independent
Books by Alice Thompson
The Existential Detective
The Existential Detective is the story of a private investigator, William Blake who is asked by an eccentric scientist to investigate the whereabouts of his amnesiac missing wife, Louise. As Will investigates, the case brings back memories of the unsolved disappearance of his own ten year old daughter Emily and the havoc it wrought on his marriage.
Set in a Scottish seaside resort, the case takes Will to brothels, nightclubs and amusement arcades. Will develops a sexual obsession with a singer at a nightclub, to escape his torturous memories. An epileptic, he also sees visions of Emily as a child trying to tell him where she is.
Identities become confused as Will tries to find out who is responsible for Emily then Louise going missing. He begins to suspect his ex-wife. On finding out who is responsible he is driven to extreme measures. The Existential Detective is a surreal, dreamlike story of loss, incest and what it means to remember.
‘haunting, strange, Kafkaesque poetic mystery’ Ian Rankin on Twitter
‘unsettling, unsettlingly erotic, and somehow sadly beautiful. Thompson is fast becoming one of the most original and formidable writers in the English language today’ The Sunday Herald
Rights:
UK & Commonwealth : Two Ravens Press
Pub date: June 2010