In the hallucinatory light and heat of a Mediterranean island, a geologist arrives to inspect a granite quarry where a worker has been killed in suspicious circumstances. Briefed in advance to write a damning report, he brings along his young mistress and pushes his wife and family to the back of his mind. But his blithe plans are disrupted by the arrival of the dead man’s widow, hell-bent on revenge; a fax from his wife announcing her pregnancy; and a threatening dispute with the quarry owners. Conflicting messages and complex motivations abound until, from the dust and roar of quarry and stone mill, the jagged contours of a harrowing conspiracy emerge. By the time the home office instructs him to drop the case, it is too late. He has already stumbled into a web of blackmail, deception, and murder. “Shear, ” a geological term, occurs when “pressure is applied in at least two different and not diametrically opposite directions, ” and in Shear Tim Parks has created a shattering portrait of a man confronting multiple forces and mounting obsessions.
“An engrossing and beautifully written suspense novel.” –The New York Times
“Parks’s books are like crystals: multifaceted, hard-edged and radiant. But this one is positively volcanic. . . . Smolderingly brilliant.” –Booklist
“A dark, brilliantly realized thriller.” –Library Journal
“In terms of storytelling, Shear comes on strong. The tension builds as Parks dangles his lures and clues before the reader, and there is an almost Hitchcockian brand of witty menace to many of the episodes.” –San Francisco Chronicle
“The novel impresses deeply with its tautness, precision of detail, sharp dialogue, vivid characters, apt symbolism.” –The New York Times Book Review
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
An Independent Literary Publisher Since 1917
