Benny & Shrimp (21 page)
Authors: Katarina Mazetti
Other fiction titles published by Short Books
McNaughten
Siân Busby
ISBN 978–1–906021–88–7 paperback £7.99
“Worthy of Dickens, a gripping thriller… a rich,
clever, absorbing novel that is extremely hard to fault.”
The Times
The winter of 1843 is one of bitter strife for England. The nation is on the brink of ruin and revolution, the government struggling to stand firm against the rising chaos.
Out of this apocalyptic landscape emerges a young Scotsman, Daniel McNaughten. He has been on a journey, a descent into his own despair, mirroring the tribulations of society at large. His journey will end in London, with the death of an apparently innocent man. One freezing day in January, he takes a shot at the Prime Minister’s Private Secretary, Edward Drummond, as he makes his way to Downing Street. The incident rocks the nation.
Has the assassin perhaps mistaken Mr. Drummond for the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel? And who is this McNaughten? A dangerous political radical – possibly the agent of an entire network of revolutionaries – or a religious fanatic? Is he a lunatic, or merely a victim of the collective madness that surrounds him?
As Daniel McNaughten goes on trial, the dark forces lying beneath the surface of society threaten to break loose and overturn the very order of things. Suddenly, the nation’s
sanity
seems to be hanging on the destiny of one hapless
individual
. The verdict against him will change English law forever.
“Written with verve, Siân Busby infiltrates the heart
and soul fo the Victorian world, which uncannily parallels
our own.”
Daily Telegraph
Upcoming fiction from Short Books
Crimson China
Betsy Tobin
ISBN 978–1–907595–04–2 hardback £14.99
October 2010
On a freezing night in February, a woman wades into the waters of Morecambe Bay in a drunken bid to commit suicide. Braced for death, she finds herself instead saving a man’s life—a young Chinese cockle picker, one of the only survivors of a tragic mass drowning. For Wen—now missing, presumed dead—Angie provides an unexpected sanctuary. They share neither language nor experience, but she agrees to let him stay with her and ‘disappear’. Within a short time their unlikely pairing blossoms into something darkly passionate.
But Wen’s past soon catches up with him. He is still in debt to the snakeheads who brought him out of China. And when his sister, Lili, travels to Britain in search of his memory, she unwittingly seals his fate.
Crimson China
is a novel that traps the reader at the outset, shining a light on a tragic, hidden world that runs in parallel to our own. It is a story of identity and culture, of the
irrepressibility
of the human spirit, and the powerful undertow of love.
Praise for Betsy Tobin’s earlier novels:
“Tobin’s world pulses with subversion and unexpected passion.”
Daily Telegraph
“Triumphant”
Time Out
“A lyrically written epic”
Sunday Telegraph
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First published in 1998
by Short Books
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This ebook edition first published in 2010
All rights reserved
© Katarina Mazetti, 2010
The right of Katarina Mazetti to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–1–907595–23–3
