PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
After studying English at Oxford, Andrew Williams worked as a senior producer for the BBC's Panorama and Newsnight programmes, then wrote and directed history documentaries. He is the author of two bestselling non-fiction books, The Battle of the Atlantic and D-Day to Berlin. His acclaimed first novel, The Interrogator, is also published by John Murray.
'I was totally absorbed in this very gripping, sensational historical mystery, with a factual basis and with the nail-biting tension of whether the protagonists will be arrested or not. This is only the author's second novel and yet it was shortlisted for both the Walter Scott Prize and the CWA Ellis Peters Award. The depth of research that the author undertook with this book is to be applauded. I was completely captivated by the very tightly plotted depth of this story which I think is the best historical romantic mystery that I have had the pleasure of reading this year. I hope to include it in my top five books of 2011. If you enjoy a marvellously evocative historical mystery then this is the next one to buy if you have not done so already' * Eurocrime * 'Authentic, moving, though-provoking, gripping ... as good as historical thrillers get. Don't miss it' * Beverley Guardian * 'Sheer escapism . . . To Kill a Tsar is a bold portrait of revolutionaries seeking to assassinate Tsar Alexander II in St Petersburg . . . gripping authenticity' * Oxford Mail * 'Williams has done his homework and each setting rings true . . . a well-constructed period thrilller . . . you will get caught up in conspiracy and counter-plot' * Shots magazine * 'Bravura story-telling... Andrew Williams is the real thing; a writer who can marry popular genres to the sophisticated treatments of political arguments' * Independent * 'To Kill a Tsar . . . had me biting my fingernails with the suspense' * Andrew Roberts, Daily Telegraph * 'A gripping thriller set in a world of treachery' * British Fantasy Society * 'Exciting . . . an important book for devotees of the spy story' * Shots Magazine * 'A very accomplished novel which can be enjoyed as a gripping and moving thriller. Yet it is more than that, for it invites us to reflect on questions of morality, and on that age-old question of when, if ever, violent means may be held to justify worthy ends; whether, indeed, such ends can ever be achieved if the means are inescapably criminal' * Allan Massie, Scotsman * 'Elegantly serpentine plotting and finely etched characters confirm his place in the front rank of the new English thriller writers' * Daily Mail * 'He blends historical fact and fiction in a vivid recreation of the world of The Idiot and Crime and Punishment' * The Times * 'This is a dense, meaty affair which pulls off the trick of gripping the reader and bringing a complicated, alien world to life' * Guardian * 'Williams contrives an appealing blend of Doctor Zhivago, Conrad's Under Western Eyes and Boris Akunin's 19th-century crime fiction. His ability to bring a past world to life matches Furst's' * John Dugdale, Sunday Times *
