Sam Dean Thriller - The Late Candidate (Sam Dean Thriller, Book 2)
In 1980s London, Black political leaders who can straddle the racial divide are a rarity.
So when a rising Black politician, Aston Edwards, is murdered, the effects quickly ripple through London’s Afro-Caribbean community.
Then a young Black boy is arrested for his murder, surrounded by rumours of an affair with Aston’s wife.
Sammy Dean, journalist-turned-investigator, is determined to find the truth. When a Black activist’s death is written off as a suicide, Sam begins to think the two cases are linked. With tensions running high, can Sam find the truth before the city erupts?
The Late Candidate is a gritty and authentic representation of London’s multi-cultural history, wrapped up in a tense thriller.
Praise for Mike Phillips‘This is Mike Phillips’s best novel, brutal and caring, totally authentic’The Times -
‘Phillips delivers his seamy tale with an enviably warm spareness of effect’Sunday Times -
‘An incisive study of immigrant experience wrapped up in a gripping thriller’Times Literary Supplement -
‘The Best British thriller in years… A novel that seems to have been written for a purpose; it deals with the black British community as something other than a problem or a political cliché’Marie Claire -
‘Could have come from the pen of the master, Raymond Chandler’Today -
A thriller which maintains pace and provides excitements rooted in reality … a winner’Guardian -
‘There’s much here to suggest that Phillips could be one of our bravest, most incisive social commentators’Mail on Sunday -
Phillips’ depictions of urban London share more with Harlem and Los Angeles than the English drawing rooms of P.D. James and Ruth Rendell’Financial Times -
‘Phillips… gives a mean streetwise documentary edge to his hero’s hunt for a witness’Sunday Express -
‘Mr Phillips writes in a precise uncluttered style that suits the detective novel’s ritualistic form. But it is the sensibility of his hero – a black man – that lends freshness to the form itself’The New York Times Book Review -
‘As a political thriller it has something to say about multi-cultural Britain that is both revealing and intelligent … a good novel, deftly handled and deserving of praise’Time Out -