Dedalus Original Fiction in Paperback Series

A zany satire about the absurdity of life set in New York

Gabriel has worked for Soviet intelligence, but after the fall of the Soviet Union he has become a private investigator. However, he cannot cut himself off from the surreal world of international politics. Oleg, his former KGB boss, continues to haunt him. 'Would you like to buy,' he asked me once, 'a nuclear submarine? A friend of mine dismantles them up by the Arctic Circle. He will ship them to any part of the world.' As Gabriel struggles with personal problems, an acquaintance from the past asks him to help her when her lover is killed. Touched by her appeal, Gabriel makes promises he cannot keep. A psychological thriller set in London's seedy underworld.

Cult fiction techno-thriller about how real is reality

Alost musical masterpiece is at the heart of this gripping intellectual mystery

Henry Wallace 's major terrorist case has unexpected consequences. Sentence Adjourned will delight the many readers of Paul Genney's first novel, Pleading Guilty, which introduced us to that most unlikely anti-hero, Henry Wallace, an ageing provincial barrister at odds with the world and the legal establishment. Things are looking up for Henry Wallace as his career goes from strength to strength; a major terrorist case at The Old Bailey, a complex and very lucrative civil action, a murder case and even a brief to defend his own Head of Chambers but with his workload considerably reduced by getting a brilliant pupil, Jas, to assist him. As Jas burns the midnight oil on Henry's behalf this allows Henry to give time to his personal life and the search for a lady friend to replace Pauline. But all is not as it seems, and Henry's life is turned upside down and disaster beckons. One of The Times' Legal Books of the Year and a must read novel for lawyers.

A thoughtful crime mystery which introduces the Greek private investigator George Zafiris

beguiling combination of paranoid fantasy and tragi-comedy, Daniel Glick's entire family disappeared the night of the earthquake, as did so many others. At least that's what he tells people. He was at the circus when it struck and he just managed to escape as the circus tent fell onto all the spectators below. All the clocks in the city stopped at twenty minutes past eight and they will only start up again when the next one is due. That is what they say, and Daniel has thought about nothing else for the last two years. His wife Marina got sick and tired of listening to the same old stories and one day she too was gone. They'd only been married a year. The neighbours asked themselves what could have become of his wife, one day she's there, the next she's gone. They called the police who took up all the floorboards and found nothing, not a thing. Daniel told them over and over that he would never hurt a fly, and that is the truth. Yet someone follows him wherever he goes, watching his every move to see what he does next, but Daniel Glick is just keeping an eye on the clocks of the city waiting for them to start ticking again, because this time he is prepared.

A doomed love affair against the backdrop of Ulster's troubles This convincing and evocative novel may lack the terrors of involvement and love across the sectarian divide, none the less, it explores the universal confusions and complexities of adolescence from an original perspective. C.L. Dallat in The Times Literary Supplement Pat's teenage romance with the lovely Elaine is tenderly related, their innocent relationship at odds with violence around them.With understated compassion, Gray shows a family torn apart and a love tainted by political divisions. His novel is blissfully free of sentimentality and endless rain that plagues so much Irish fiction. Lisa Allardice in The Independent on Sunday

A triptych about an old man discovering the internet and sex, Rousseau and Proust.

Theodore, described as the heretical memoirs of a gay priest, was seventh in The Guardian's Top Ten Paperback Originals.

New Renaissance knowledge leads to the exploration of America

"Gray's reworking of the Animal Farm concept brings in a post-Thatcherite twist. Having peacefully co-existed with his friends Mouse and Rat (the latter carries a briefcase and wears Italian suits), the Cat's owners suddenly leave him to fend for himself. He then has to fall back on feline instincts, placating the furry packed lunches which surround him with promises of consumer goods and burrow ownership. A stylish and witty parable for the Nineties." Scotland on Sunday The Cat will appeal to lovers of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

A story of love, death and betrayal in which nothing is quite what it seems

Mensah is a London Noir. A crime novel with a difference set in the deprived streets of Hackney amongst the African community, a stone throw away from affluent and gentrified parts of the borough and Islington. It pays homage to Raymond Chandler and introduces us to the charismatic Mensah, a black hero for our times. Mensah is the kind of man you go looking for when you have a problem. He might cause mayhem and carnage on the way but he will get the job done. So when a would-be African pop star disappears her rich husband puts Mensah on the case. Soon things start to go wrong and Mensah finds he is the one being hunted. The mean streets of Hackney spell danger for him. Mensah is set in an African city in the heart of London.

A zany growing up novel with an unforgettable ending set in Florida

The Romeo and Juliet story of teenage love which cuts across all social barriers is transported to modern-day Bristol. The novel is dominated by the mesmerising and beautiful Daizee Byatt, the daughter of a drug addict who makes a living as a prostitute. At 15 Daizee Byatt has already seen too much of the bad things of life and then she meets the sweet, innocent 14 year-old Franky on his way home from school. This is a novel about the darker side of contemporary life and modern Britain's underclass. Xavier Leret was born and bred in Bristol. He is the former Artistic Director of the Award Winning Ensemble Kaos Theatre. Writing and directing credits include The Fantastical Adventures of Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance (a Millennium Award Winner), Isle of Dogs, Thirst, Alice, Caligula, Swing, Moll Flanders, Metropolis, and an adaptation of Bulgakov's The Master & Margarita (nominated for the best production on the Dublin Fringe and an Edinburgh Fringe First). He has written and directed two feature films, Mine and Kung Fu Flid, the world's first 'cripsploitation' movie, starring thalidomide actor Mat Fraser. He now lives quietly in a small Hamlet not far from Bishops Stortford. The Romeo And Juliet Killers is his first novel.

Athens. Autumn. The start of a crazy week for private investigator George Zafiris. On Monday a friend is killed by a hit and run driver. On Tuesday the body vanishes. On Wednesday Zafiris begins to ask questions, and on Thursday the first death threats are made. By Friday things are starting to get complicated. A brilliant young concert violinist disappears, quickly followed by her husband. The police seem to be co-operative, but everywhere Zafiris looks, he finds obstructions, dishonesty, mysterious delays. As the country's debt crisis takes its toll on the people of Athens, suicides and illness proliferate. Zafiris finds his own life spinning dangerously out of control. A few days in an ancient monastery on Mount Athos seem to offer some respite. But there's a surprise waiting there too.

A baroque restaurant novel which merges cannibalism with Platonism

The clash between Christianity and paganism in a dark and hostile world is at the heart of Time of the Beast. In the Dark Ages, Athwold, a young monk, leaves his monastery in disgrace, to seek spiritual redemption by becoming a hermit in the wild expanse of the dismal Fenlands. Here he experiences love, desire and also horror, leading him to join the warrior-monk Cadroc in his quest to hunt down a brutal and mysterious killer - supposedly a demon which stalks in the remotest reaches of the marshes, but whose true nature remains ominously unknown. It is a journey which takes Athwold deep into a world of pagan superstition and terror, on a blood-cursed trail of rage, revenge and madness; and to his final confrontation with darkness - both his own and the world's. Time of the Beast will appeal strongly to readers who like a dash of horror in their historical fiction and anyone interested in the Dark Ages and the Fens. 'An impressive debut in which the Fens make the perfect eerie backdrop for a dark ages whodunnit based on a true story.It's Smith's knowledge of the time that makes his story so believable, so immersive; there isn't anything here that seems out of kilter. The concept of native British shamans is beguiling (be prepared for a bit of church-bashing as the ministers of the new religion shudder at the notion of people enjoying themselves: every pleasure is a temptation from Satan), as is the notion of pockets of the country where its original inhabitants still lurk along with people who are even more weird and ancient than them (the last Neanderthals, it is hinted at). In short, you're transported back in time, and it's the kind of book you might find yourself wishing were longer.' Nick Lezard's Choice in The Guardian 'It is 666AD and Athwold leaves his East Anglian monastery to became, at the age of 25, a hermit in the great marshland of the Fens. A daunting prospect in that somewhat forbidding territory even today but even more so then when there was less delineation between land and water. Athwold not only has to battle the terrain and the conflicting forces of paganism and Christianity but also his own inner turmoil when faced with love and desire. Throw a warrior-monk, Cadroc, and a mysterious otherwordly killer into the mix and the story takes on terrifying twists as it races towards a very satisfactory conclusion. This is a fascinating little book fewer than 250 pages but you might be left wishing there were more. This an excellent debut novel .' Carole Dawson Young in Tribune About the Author Geoff Smith was born in London and educated in Surrey. He worked in travel, then wrote and performed for theatre, television before

Sputnik Caledonia was awarded the prestigious Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award and was shortlisted for The James Tait Black Prize and The Scottish Book of the Year Award. Robbie Coyle is an imaginative kid. He wants so badly to become Scotland's first cosmonaut that he tries to teach himself Russian and trains for space exploration in the cupboard under the sink. But the eplaces to which his fantasies later take him is far from the safety of his suburban childhood. In a communist state, in a closed bleak town, the mysterious Red Star heralds his discovery of cruelty and of love, and the possibility that the most passionate of dreams may only be a chimera... 'This a surprisingly moving novel about the impersonal forces - be they political, quantum, temporal or otherwise - that can threaten or shatter the bonds of love, and of family life. Never has astrophysics seemed so touching and funny.' Sinclair McKay in The Daily Telegraph. 'a stimulating read, full of political, philosophical and scientific thought experiments.' Jonathan Gibbs in The Independent. Andrew Crumey was born in Glasgow in 1961. He read theoretical physics and mathematics at St Andrews University and Imperial College in London, before doing post-doctoral research at Leeds University on nonlinear dynamics. After a spell of being the literary editor at Scotland on Sunday he now combines teaching creative writing at Northumbria University with his writing.He is the author of seven novels: Music, in a Foreign Language (1994), Pfitz (1995), D'Alembert's Principle (1996), Mr Mee (2000, Dedalus edition 2014), Mobius Dick (2004, Dedalus edition 2014) Sputnik Caledonia( 2008, Dedalus edition forthcoming in 2015)) and The Secret Knowledge (2013). Andrew Crumey's novels have been translated into 14 languages.

Three novellas bound together in a highly-acclaimed post-modern literary triptych

Blending exuberant inventiveness with subtle satire, Faster Than Light is a novel that will appeal not just to fans of humorous science fiction, but to anyone looking for a quirky and original read.

It is Palm Sunday 1461 and the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil is about to take place outside the village of Towton. It is one of a series of engagements between the houses of York and Lancaster. The world when younger was more brightly coloured and its ecstasies and tortures more fiercely endured. But, ever since the Dolorous Stroke and the Showing of the Grail in the days of King Arthur, England has lain under a curse. So many have died that Hell is now full and consequently the dead stalk the land. Anthony Woodville, Lord Scales, having been killed at Towton, is vouchsafed the first of many strange visions before being resurrected. From then on adventures come running after him like hungry dogs and he will encounter the Swordsman's Pentacle, the Draug, the Miraculous Cauldron, the Curse of the Roasted Goose, the Talking Head and the Museum of Skulls. The real world is a poor thing compared to the stories that are told about it. Anthony hears or takes part in many stories, and those stories are porous, so that men and monsters move easily in and out of them. The stories that Anthony encounters have only one purpose and it is not a good one.

Andrew Crumey's novels are renowned for their unique blend of science, history, philosophy and humour. Now he brings the same insight and originality to this story cycle whose title offers an ironic twist on the ancient doctrine of connectedness, the great chain of being. Here we find a blind man contemplating the light of an atom bomb, a musician disturbed by a conspiracy of radio waves, a visitor to Moscow caught up in a comic case of mistaken identity, a woman on a Greek island trying to become a different person. We range across time, from the Renaissance to a globally-warmed future, across light-years in search of hallucinogenic space-plankton, and into magical worlds of talking insects and bottled fire. Fans of Crumey's acclaimed novels will occasionally spot hints of themes and figures that have recurred throughout his fiction; readers new to his work will delight in finding subtle links within the pieces. Are they all part of some larger untold story? We have nothing to lose but the chains of our imagination: what lies beyond is a great change of being.