The Mouthless Dead

Anthony Quinn

$49.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Abacus
06 March 2025

Historical fiction

'A dark, unsettling, completely addictive mystery' Jonathan Coe

'Absorbing.. The Mouthless Dead is as engrossing as it is unsettling' Emma Flint

'A beguiling real-life crime thriller' Chris Brookmyre

A powerful and gripping crime novel based on the Wallace Murder, a national cause celebre of the 1930s and still unsolved today, by the author of Curtain Call and Our Friends in Berlin

One night in 1931 William Wallace was handed a phone message at his chess club from a Mr Qualtrough, asking him to meet at an address to discuss some work. Wallace caught a tram from the home he shared with his wife, Julia, to the address which turned out, after Wallace had consulted passers-by and even a policeman, to not exist.

On returning home two hours later he found his wife beaten to death in the parlour. The elaborate nature of his alibi pointed to Wallace as the culprit. He was arrested and tried, found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang, but the next month the Court of Criminal Appeal sensationally overturned the verdict and he walked free. The killer was never found.

Fifteen years on, the inspector who worked the case is considering it once more. Speculation continues to be rife over the true killer's identity. James Agate in his diary called it 'the perfect murder', Raymond Chandler said 'The case is unbeatable. It will always be unbeatable'. And on a cruise in 1947, new information is about to come to light.

By: Anthony Quinn
Imprint: Abacus
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 158mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9780349146928
ISBN 10: 0349146926
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 06 March 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Anthony Quinn was born in Liverpool in 1964. From 1998 to 2013 he was the film critic for the Independent. His novels include The Rescue Man, which won the 2009 Authors' Club Best First Novel Award; Half of the Human Race; The Streets, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Walter Scott Prize; Curtain Call, now released as The Critic , a feature film starring Ian McKellen and Gemma Arterton; Freya, Eureka, Our Friends in Berlin, London, Burning and Molly & the Captain. He also wrote the recent Liverpool memoir Klopp.

Reviews for The Mouthless Dead

A dark, unsettling, completely addictive mystery, which draws you in with all the momentum and all the loving attention to period detail that we've come to expect from Anthony Quinn * Jonathan Coe *