The House of Fame : A Novel
Author(s): Oliver Harris
From the author of the acclaimed The Hollow Man and Deep Shelter, comes the third installment featuring the shrewd, cynical, and brilliant London detective, Nick Belsey, whose investigation into a child’s disappearance pulls him into the hedonistic orbit of a young, hot celebrity actress/musician and the dark world lurking underneath its glamorous exterior.
Twenty-seven, rich and beautiful, Amber Knight is living everyone’s dream. Her music career is established, her acting career is taking off, and she has a lifestyle fit for the top of the A-List.
So why has she started acting so strangely?
At least, that’s how it seems to Nick Belsey. A less celebrated resident of North London, Belsey’s decade-long career at Hampstead CID is coming to an abrupt end, but he still can’t seem to kick his habit of getting into serious trouble. When he’s asked by a desperate mother to help find her only son, Belsey has to infiltrate Amber’s glittering world. The seedy underside to her seemingly perfect life—a realm of excess, obsession, lust, and greed—doesn’t surprise him. What does is the blood trail that leads directly to Amber.
As one twisted crime is followed by another, Belsey finds himself chasing even more answers than when he started out. And when the stakes are raised dangerously high, Belsey’s own survival is at stake. It may be too late to save his reputation but he’s not ready to die just yet—and especially not at the hands of a celebrity.
“Harris has a terrific sense of place, hurtling between the wealthiest and most-run-down areas of London. But the cleverest thing about his third Belsey novel is the way the plot unfolds in a chilling and totally unexpected direction.”—Sunday Times (London)
Review(s):
“Oliver Harris is a new British writer of great promise.”
“Harris’s stellar third crime novel featuring North London police detective Nick Belsey combines an intriguing and surprising plot with an uncompromisingly bleak worldview that fans of Cornell Woolrich’s despairing noir fiction will relish…. Belsey emerges as a memorably flawed protagonist.”
“A superb novel about the demonic detective who breaks all the rules.… Harris has a rare ability to combine storytelling that has a freewheeling, improvisatory feel with a plot that has been long hours in the concocting. Belsey…is fast becoming the best anti-hero in British crime fiction.”
“As eerie as le Carré‘s Berlin or Larsson’s Stockholm.”
“Meticulously plotted, with a delirious, haunted, paranoid atmosphere. Belsey is an irresistible mixture of the reliable and the reckless, laconic and tightly wound… Harris writes beautifully… Imbued with an uncommon subtlety and intelligence, House of Fame is a superb novel.”
“Harris has a terrific sense of place, hurtling between the wealthiest and most-run-down areas of London. But the cleverest thing about his third Belsey novel is the way the plot unfolds in a chilling and totally unexpected direction.”
Praise for The Hollow Man: “A twisting spiral of lies and corruption, a pitch-perfect portrait of contemporary London and a beguiling bastard of a hero—what a recipe for a great read.”
Praise for Deep Shelter: “Extremely entertaining…. This is a real nail-biter and a great ride for readers.”
“A picture perfect portrait of contemporary London.”
“A fast-paced thriller that is also nuanced and evocative…hats off to Harris, who has, once again, managed it with style and authority.”
ISBN: 9780062405159