The Lying Tongue [Hardcover]

"'Darkly compulsive, a beautifully written, if disturbing literary thriller, in the tradition of Patricia Highsmith.' Kate Mosse, author of SEPULCHRE * "an extraordinary work of imaginative genius, meshing Dickens's gothic atmosphere with Hitchcock's suspenseful creepiness." - Michael Collins, Washington Post * "Reading The Lying Tongue is like walking across the shifting floor of a funfair Haunted House. Andrew Wilson wrongfoots the reader every chance he gets. It's gruesomely mesmerising." - Val McDermid * 'A clever, taut, Gothic black romance - worthy of Highsmith herself.' - The Times * "'Andrew Wilson has created a character of such entertaining pathological creepiness that Adam Woods Syndrome should become a diagnosis. This is a sustained performance deserving serious attention beyond the devoted readers of the crime novel." - Michael Tolkin" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

"A clever, taut, Gothic black romance - worthy of Highsmith herself." The Times * "an extraordinary work of imaginative genius, meshing Dickens's gothic atmosphere with Hitchcock's suspenseful creepiness." - Michael Collins, Washington Post * "Reading The Lying Tongue is like walking across the shifting floor of a funfair Haunted House. Andrew Wilson wrongfoots the reader every chance he gets. It's gruesomely mesmerising." - Val McDermid * "A crumbling Venetian palazzo makes a suitable backdrop to Andrew Wilson's creepy thriller, The Lying Tongue...it's a clever, very well-composed story, with some disturbing twists." - Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph * "'Andrew Wilson has created a character of such entertaining pathological creepiness that Adam Woods Syndrome should become a diagnosis. This is a sustained performance deserving serious attention beyond the devoted readers of the crime novel.'" - Michael Tolkin" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

When young History of Art graduate Adam Woods takes a job in Venice as assistant to the aging, reclusive bestselling writer Gordon Crace, he becomes obsessed with the idea of writing his biography. But Adam does not expect the uncanny similarity between himself and Crace's former tenant, who died in mysterious circumstances decades earlier.When Adam discovers that there is a rival who intends to write the book of Crace's life and that another mysterious person is blackmailing Crace, he leaves the murky canals of Venice for his home in London, and the hallowed halls of a great English public school in Dorset, to try and unravel the secrets of his subject's past. It is then that we get the uncomfortable sense that Adam isn't all we think he is..."The Lying Tongue" is a deeply atmospheric story of one person's delusion and another's dark past. At once a tense thriller and gothic psychological horror, it will grip you until its shocking climax. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Andrew Wilson was born in 1967. He embarked on a career in freelance writing and since then has worked for many publications including the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Independent on Sunday and Guardian. His first book, Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography Award and won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the USA. The Lying Tongue is his debut novel. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.