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A Novel
by Stef Penney
Small-time private investigator Ray Lovell veers between paralysis and delirium in a hospital bed. But before the accident that landed him there, he'd been hired to find Rose Janko, the wife of a charismatic son of a traveling Gypsy family, who went missing seven years earlier. Half Romany himself, Ray is well aware that he's been chosen more for his blood than his investigative skills. Still, he's surprised by the intense hostility he encounters from the Jankos, who haven't had an easy past. Touched by tragedy, they're either cursed or hiding a terrible secret - whose discovery Ray can't help suspecting is connected to Rose's disappearance...
"Starred Review. Fast-paced, with characters who will live in full color inside the reader's head, Penney delivers an impressive follow-up to her debut bestseller, The Tenderness of Wolves." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Penney probes the edge-of-civilization otherness of England's Romany (or Gypsies) while presenting a mystery rooted in the stranglehold of family... Another stunner from Penney, highly recommended." - Library Journal
"Penney gives her plot plenty of twists and saves the best for the end, with a truly unforeseen and unpredictable conclusion." - Kirkus Reviews
"She is a true storyteller... she knows how to tell a story, how to reach her readers and hold them from start to finish. Indeed, she may be one of the best storytellers we have at the moment." - The Scotsman (UK)
"Unsentimental, non-judgmental and researched though this is, there's a nagging sense that it doesn't quite ring true. Penney has set herself a brave and heartfelt but almost impossible task." - The Guardian (UK)
"This is a murder mystery unpicked at the seams, turned inside out, and stitched together with threads of myth, old griefs, twisted forms of love and complex family ties into something utterly new and utterly enthralling. Warning: you will not get anything else done till you finish the last page of this book." - Tana French, author of The Likeness and In The Woods
Reading Group Guide
This information about The Invisible Ones was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Stef Penney was born and grew up in Edinburgh.
After a degree in Philosophy and Theology she turned to film-making, studying Film and TV at Bournemouth College of Art.
On graduation she was selected for the Carlton Television New Writers Scheme and has since written extensively for film and radio.
Her first novel, The Tenderness of Wolves was named Costa Book of the Year 2006, and Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year 2008. It has been translated into 30 languages, and is a world-wide bestseller.
Stef lives in London.
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