This month, three lucky winners will receive sets of:

• Unholy Awakening, by Michael Gregori (Faber)
• Captured, by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster UK)
• The Marias Assassin, by Claude Izner (Gallic Books)

Unholy Awakening, by Michael Gregori

A female corpse is found in the town of Lotingen. The girl’s neck has been ripped open, all the blood drained from the body. Hanno Stiffeniis hastens to investigate a case more terrifying than murder. Would any human being kill in such a gruesome fashion?

Emma Rimmele has come to Lotingen to bury her mother. A beautiful woman travelling with a coffin in her baggage, Emma attracts gossip like a magnet. When a corpse is discovered near the house where she is living, speculation about the mysterious stranger reaches fever pitch. When two more ravaged bodies are found, fingers point accusingly in her direction. One word is heard on every tongue. Vampire.

Magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis defends Emma Rimmele against the hideous accusation. Has he fallen under the vampire’s spell, as his neighbours believe? News arrives from a nearby town. A French officer’s throat has been ripped out. Another French soldier has bled to death. The horror of Lotingen is happening elsewhere. Colonel Lavedrine, a criminologist in the Grand Armée, is ordered to collaborate with Hanno Stiffeniis. Two years earlier, they had worked together to solve a murder (Days of Atonement, 2007), despite fierce clashes of character and opinion.

Once again, each man is drawn into the forbidden world of the other. Stiffeniis takes his chance among French soldiers vying for power, while Lavedrine must tread dark graveyard paths in pursuit of a curse which has plagued Prussia for centuries.

They are seeking a cold-blooded killer.

A killer thirsting for warm blood from a pulsing vein.

Captured, by Neil Cross

Even though he is still young, Kenny has just weeks to live. Before he dies, he wants to find his childhood best friend Callie Barton and thank her for the kindness she showed him when they were at school together.

But when Kenny begins his search, he discovers that Callie Barton has gone missing. Although cleared of any involvement, her husband Jonathan seems to be hiding something.

Kenny has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. And knowing that time is running out on him, he’s prepared to do whatever it takes…

• Read the first chapter of Captured

The Marias Assassin, by Claude Izner

The fourth Victor Legris Mystery.

Parisian bookseller, Victor Legris, finds a new case to investigate very close to home, when his business partner’s apartment is burgled.

Curiously the only item stolen is a decorative goblet of little value. But on learning that two people have been murdered who were connected to to the goblet, Victor becomes convinced of its secret significance. How quickly can he recover it and end the killing spree, in a city beset with terrorist activity?

In this fourth case for the bookseller sleuth, Claude Izner offers a convincing portrait of a Paris shaken by anarchist bombings in the spring of 1892.

The Questions

To win, answer two simple questions, the answers to which can be found somewhere on Bookdagger…

• Question 1: Which mythical creature of the night may be behind the killings in Michael Gregori’s new novel?
  
• Question 2: In Captured, who is the first person Kenny calls after his diagnosis?

Terms and conditions

1. Closing date for entries: 5th September 2010.
2. Open to residents of the United Kingdom only.
3. Entry to the competition is by completion of the above form only. Anyone submitting multiple entries will be disqualified.
4. The winners will be selected at random from those correct entries received before the closing date.
5. Only the winning entrants will be contacted by Bookdagger. Our decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
6. The winner’s name(s) may be published on the Bookdagger website after the closing date of the competition.
7. The competition is not open to Bookhugger employees and their families, or to employees of Bookdagger publishers and their families.

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1. Frank Leneghan Says:
   August 26th, 2010 at 8:39 am

   Who needs literary novels? Roll on crime writing!

2. Jazzmine Says:
   September 5th, 2010 at 3:45 pm

   These novels sound amazing. I’m already desperately itching to know what happened to Callie Barton in Captured. Great contest, glad I was able to enter on time. Think I may tweet about it too, see if others want a last minute chance.

3. Jazzmine Says:
   September 5th, 2010 at 4:11 pm

   Just finished the rest of the extract from Captured. That Thomas Kintry affair was really a shocker, feel sorry for Kenny though, feeling so bad and all. Nice to know he is still on such good terms with his ex.. but what happened between them. Ohh questions questions!

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