The Existential Detective

Author(s): Alice Thompson

Crime

William Blake is a private detective. When he is asked by an eccentric scientist to investigate the where-abouts of his amnesiac missing wife, Louise, Will finds himself entangled in layers of deceptions and disappearances that lead him inexorably back to an unsolved mystery in his own past: the loss of his young daughter Emily. The case takes Will to brothels, nightclubs and amusement arcades in the Scottish seaside resort of Portobello. Identities become con-fused as his sexual obsession with a nightclub singer becomes entwined with sightings of Louise, his own torturous memories, and new visions of the lost Emily. The Existential Detective is a surreal, dreamlike story of loss, incest and what it means to remember.


Product Information

Alice Thompson was born and brought up in Edinburgh. She was the former keyboard player with post-punk eighties band, The Woodentops and joint winner with Graham Swift of The James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for her first novel, Justine. Her second novel, Pandora's Box, was shortlisted for The Stakis Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. Her other novels are Pharos, The Falconer and most recently Burnt Island. Alice is a past winner of a Creative Scotland Award. She is now lecturer in Creative Writing at Edinburgh University.

General Fields

  • : 9781784630119
  • : Salt Publishing
  • : Salt Publishing
  • : 0.276
  • : August 2014
  • : 203mm X 127mm X 10mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Alice Thompson
  • : Paperback
  • : 2nd Revised edition
  • : 823.92
  • : 184
  • : black & white illustrations