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  • Published: 1 February 2002
  • ISBN: 9780552145879
  • Imprint: Corgi
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $29.99

The Sleep Of The Dead




The brilliant new thriller from the acclaimed author of Shadow Dancer.

The brutal murder of Sarah Ford and the disappearance of her six-year-old daughter, Alice, shattered the rural serenity of Julia Havilland's childhood. But these are not the only scars that have resolutely refused to heal. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Mitchell Havilland sacrificed himself on a Falklands hillside in an act of characteristic - but baffling - heroism. When Julia comes home from China fifteen years later, it is to a place of ghosts.

Whilst she awaits the outcome of the enquiry that seems destined to end her short but spectacular career in military intelligence, Julia is drawn back across the landscape of the past, to find that it is not just the tortured image of her much-loved father that returns to haunt her. Everything she has ever believed in and lived for has suddenly been called into question, and unless she confronts her demons, she will not survive. For there have been other deaths, and the dead will not sleep...

At once a race-against-the-clock thriller and a complex psychological drama where the memories of the past conflict with knowledge of the present, The Sleep of the Dead is a stunning read on any level and more than confirms Tom Bradby as one of this country's foremost thriller writers.

Praise for Shadow Dancer:

'Quite exceptional...Tom Bradby succeeds in creating real characters. Far too many novels take refuge in cliché and caricature - Bradby refuses to. The language, the tension, the fear - all are portrayed vividly and correctly...A taut, compelling story of love and torn loyalties'
Daily Telegraph

'A remarkable first novel...Bradby handles the tension with skill to produce a gripping tale'
The Times

'The best book on the northern conflict since Harry's Game...An excellent read on any level. It scores heavily as a thriller and as an accurate unblinking look at what is happening right now'
Irish Independent

  • Published: 1 February 2002
  • ISBN: 9780552145879
  • Imprint: Corgi
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $29.99

About the author

Tom Bradby

Tom Bradby is a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. As a broadcaster, he is best known as the current Anchor of ITV’s News at Ten. In his first year in the job, he was named Network Presenter of the Year by the Royal Television Society.


He has been with ITN for thirty years and was successively Ireland Correspondent, Political Correspondent, Asia Correspondent (during which time he was shot and seriously injured whilst covering a riot in Jakarta), Royal Correspondent, UK Editor and Political Editor – a job he held for a decade – before being made the Anchor of News at Ten in 2015.

He has written seven previous novels, the most recent of which, Secret Service, was a top ten bestseller. The Master of Rain was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Steel Dagger for Thriller of the Year, and both The White Russian and The God of Chaos for the CWA Historical Crime Novel of the Year. He adapted his first novel, Shadow Dancer, into a film, the script for which was nominated for Screenplay of the Year in the Evening Standard Film Awards.

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Praise for The Sleep Of The Dead

'Intriguing and emotive, this is a slow builder that proves to be well worth the wait'

The Mirror

'Elegant, spooky and a compulsive page turner'

Daily Mail

'A race-against-the-clock thriller and a complex psychological drama'

Irish Independent

'Torn apart by loyalties and suspicion, the tension gradually mounts as the pieces of the jigsaw finally fit together into a gripping psychological drama'

Choice

'Lives up to the promise of its remarkable predecessor, Shadow Dancer...confirms Bradby's considerable promise as a a thriller writer'

Daily Mail