No Place of Safety [Paperback]

‘Robert Barnard is always original, never repeats himself and has a delectable wit’
Daily Telegraph

‘He plots as well as any writer alive’
Time Magazine

‘Barnard never disappoints. The psychological suspense is chilling’
The Times

Reviews for No Place of Safety

‘A fine example of the neatly packaged, traditional English whodunit’
Irish Times

‘Robert Barnard runs through a fine selection of contemporary issues… An observant and skilful writer’
Ham & High

A witty and perceptive new novel from Robert Barnard, an acknowledged master of the genre.

When two teenagers go missing from the same school, Detective Constable Charlie Peace is puzzled, because none of their friends seem to know of any connection between them. The mystery soon solves itself: they are not homeless street kids, but they are working at a hostel for them. Charlie knows the life and crimes of such people as these two are trying to help, but he decides that, for the moment, they are safe.

But will Charlie have cause to regret his decision? After all, who is the man running the hostel? What is his past and what is his motivation? And just how nasty is the local opposition to the project likely to become? As the pair continue their good work, the situation at the hostel becomes even more fraught with the appearance of an Asian girl fleeing an arranged marriage. And it isn’t long before a murderous attack seems about to put an end to the whole project.

The disappearance from school of two apparently unconnected teenagers worries DC Charlie Peace, until he discovers that they are both working at a hostel for homeless street kids. Peace knows the life and crimes of the people these two are trying to help, and decides that, for the moment, they are safe.

But will Peace have cause to regret his decision? After all, just who is the man running the hostel? And how nasty is the local opposition to the place likely to become? As the pair continue their good work, the situation at the hostel becomes even more fraught with the appearance of an Asian girl fleeing an arranged marriage. And it isn't long before a murderous attack seems about to put an end to the whole project.

"Very appealing…sensitively written"
T.J. BINYON, 'Evening Standard'

"Nicely drawn characters"
MICHAEL PAINTER, 'Irish Times'

Robert Barnard was born and brought up in Essex. After leaving Oxford he worked as a university lecturer in New South Wales and then taught in Norwegian universities for seventeen years, returning to England in 1983 to write full time. He and his wife now live in Leeds.