Waking Raphael - Softcover

'The splendid, golden Italian light that softened the edges of objects while at the same time mysteriously making them clearer and more resonant filled Charlotte up like a rich, heavy wine. She thought: I will always know this place; I have already known it.'

Both a political thriller and an examination of our miraculous capacity for restoration, Waking Raphael recreates an Italy where the comic and the tragic, the romantic and the violent are tightly interwoven.

BOMBAY ICE

'Only bribery or collective insanity could prevent it being shortlisted for best thriller of the year.' Sunday Times

'Bombay Ice is terrific. A thriller that thinks. Leslie Forbes has gone for broke. Bombay Bollywood in all its gaudy glory: castrati, murder, monsoons, lepers and movie moguls. That sort of daring is brave at the best of times. In a first novel it is as rare as hen's teeth.' Christopher Hope

FISH, BLOOD AND BONE

'Gripping from the outset...a dizzying tale of murder and family mystery.' Publishers Weekly

'An intelligent, breathlessly paced thriller...a cracking good read.' Time Out New York

' A learned whodunit in the tradition of the Name of the Rose... ' Wall Street Journal

La Muta, "the mute woman." Amidst a country rocked by scandal and corruption, inhabitants of the idyllic city of Urbino, Italy, birthplace of Raphael, are more concerned with a sudden outbreak of miracles than with politics. But what unspeakable secret lies hidden in Raphael's enigmatic painting? Its restoration will drive a living mute to a shocking act of violence and spark an investigation into a nearly forgotten war crime and a series of events that will shatter the silence gripping this community forever.
Both a mesmerizing thriller and a passionate exploration of the power of truth to effect reconciliation and restore faith, Waking Raphael spins a tantalizing web of silence and lies to recreate an Italy where the romantic and the violent, the comic and the tragic, are spellbindingly interwoven.

"From the Hardcover edition.