Client details

Rennie Airth was born in South Africa and worked for a number of years as a foreign correspondent for Reuters. THE DEAD OF WINTER is the last in a trilogy of novels featuring John Madden that began with RIVER OF DARKNESS, the idea for which came to the author when he found, among some family papers, mementoes of an uncle who was killed in the First World War. He lives in Italy and has published two previous novels, SNATCH and ONCE A SPY. 

Click here for further information about the author and his books.

Latest publication:

THE DEAD OF WINTER, Macmillan, 28 Sept 09
During a blackout on the streets of London on a freezing evening in late 1944, a young Polish land girl, Rosa Novak, is suddenly and brutally killed. For the police, their resources already stretched by war regulations and the thriving black market, this is a shocking and seemingly random crime. No one can find any reason why someone would want to murder an innocent refugee.

For the former police inspector John Madden, the crime hits close to home. Rosa was working on his farm and he feels personally responsible for not protecting her. His old colleagues Angus Sinclair and Billy Styles are still at the Yard, but struggle to make sense of their few clues.

Their only lead points towards war-torn Europe – but as the fighting sweeps across the continent, will they find the killer before he strikes again?

Reviews:

‘A superlative detective novel from a writer who creates complicated narratives populated by fully realised characters. He has an enviable ability to evoke rural landscape as well as teeming metropolitan life, particularly the menace of a London perpetually shrouded by darkness. Airth’s John Madden novels are must-reads.’ Daily Express, Peter Burton

‘Rennie Airth’s atmospheric The Dead of Winter is set in London during the second world war…the novel recreates wartime London brilliantly, and Airth’s detectives have to cope with flying bombs and blacked-out streets as they struggle to find the killer.’ Sunday Times Culture, Joan Smith

‘Airth’s atmosphere of London at war is superb’ The Times, Marcel Berlins