Click on the image of a book cover to read a synopsis and reviews …
Every Step You Take
George married young. It was a flop. George was big and awkward; Marje was small, pretty and blonde and she left him for another man. George threw himself into work, passed his accountancy exams and is now a partner in a small City of London firm. But the firm merges with a conglomerate and suddenly George's world is falling apart. He sees a little blonde girl running down a South Norwood street. She looks so like Marje he becomes obsessed with her, follows her, waits for her. But things get very weird. Are there two girls or one? And when one of them is killed which one is she? John Bright, who was friends with George at school, has to intervene to get George out of very bad trouble. And in the process he makes some important discoveries about himself.
EVERY STEP YOU TAKE is Maureen O'Brien's seventh novel, only two of which have so far been made available in the US. All of her mysteries feature Detective Inspector John Bright. O'Brien's writing is fast paced, intelligent, and thrilling though she does not depend on sensationalism, violence or fear to plot her mysteries. Both male and female characters are well developed and have depth and plausibility. O'Brien is multi-talented, and her writing reflects her skill and experience in the theatre, television and radio and it would be easy to imagine her works on the large or small screen. Maureen Battistella, www.reviewingtheevidence.com
Publications: ~ ISBN: 978-0751534740 Little Brown Paperback 2005 ~ ISBN: 751534749 Time Warner Paperback 2005 ~ ISBN: 316725455 Little Brown Hardback 2004 ~ ISBN: 978-0316725453 Little Brown Hardback 2004
Unauthorised Departure
Nothing would persuade DI John Bright to go abroad. Not even the death threats he keeps getting. But they start to threaten Jude's life too, and when her ex-husband Dan reappears on the scene, Bright changes his mind and, to Jude's surprise and joy, they're off, driving down to the South of France on their first holiday together. The violent rape and death of a voluptuous young woman from the Jura hotel where they stop en route finds Bright not just a cop but also for the first time in his life a suspect. Though confined, and wildly frustrated by his lack of French, Bright fights his way to the truth. But will he ever be able to bring the perpetrator to justice?
Another of O'Brien's ominous novels which fill the reader with foreboding about what horror might be encountered on the next page but is written so grippingly that the pages demand to be turned. DI John Bright, a London cop, is worried his girlfirend, Jude, may be in danger as a consequence of threatening letters he's receiving. So he takes off on holiday to rural France and gets entangled in the murder of the village's sultry lady of mystery. A suspect himself, he works with the local prosecutor to track down the culprit. He succeeds, but only after further disturbing murders. And right at the end, when those threatening letters have almost been forgotten, revelation of their origin provides a further sickening shock. Gerald Kaufman, The Scotsman
Good books set in unfamiliar places should make you reach for your phone to inquire about fares and hotels. I've never been to the the part of France known as The Jura but after reading O'Brien's latest my bags are packed … Chicago Tribune
Triumphs through raw energy and an intuitive understanding of the darkest and perhaps most basic aspects of the human psyche … Bright is an interesting and complex character, a touching blend of vulnerablitiy and vigour, a good man at home with the wicked. Knotty, stubborn and valient, he is, without doubt, a real creation. Camden New Journal
A wonderfuly atmospheric and engaging suspense novel. Bright's experience in France from its seductions to its terrors is absolutely magnificent, as are the characters of Folin, Jude and Bright. Hope Dellon, New York
Sleek mystery with great pace and an abundance of well-written dialogue. Kirkus Reviews
Thrilling mystery, heavy with nuance and and ambience. Highly recommended. New Mystery Reader Magazine
Publications: ~ ISBN: 751532487 Time Warner Paperback 2004 ~ ISBN: 1842836374 Soundings Ltd Audio 2004 ~ ISBN: 312316003 St Martin's Minotaur Hardback 2003 ~ ISBN: 316859435 Little Brown Hardback 2003
Revenge
Murder Mile – this is what the Police call Kentish Town Road. A gangland murder of a witness takes place in the builder's yard next to Jude's house. Jude is designing a garden for journalist Lee Han and also sharing his bed but she's married to architect Dan who, deeply depressed, has neglected her for years. When Lee's flat burns down it looks like there are gangland and Chinese connections. John Bright is assigned the case. Nothing is what it seems in this complex thriller that takes Bright to Hong Kong and almost loses him his life.
Up there with Ian Rankin. The dialogue crackles in way rarely found in British novels, her inspiration comes from the U.S. John Bright's scary because he's always alert, never misses a thing … good banter between real cops … funny … the best police procedural I've read this year. Phil Rickman, BBC Radio
Lots of surprises, stunning denouement. Gerald Kaufman, The Scotsman
A cracking murder mystery. There's definitely a sequel in the spark that ignites between Bright and Jude. Image
Crime writers who maintain a consistently high standard in each successive novel are rare … the ones who can are well worth looking out for … stunning. The Scotsman
Publications: ~ ISBN: 750521023 Magna Books Large print hardback 2003 ~ ISBN: 751532266 Time Warner Paperbacks Paperback 2002 ~ ISBN: 316855758 Little Brown Hardback 2001
Dead Innocent
The body of a fifteen year old girl has been found near a railway in the Totterdown area of Bristol … Kate Creech hears the news report with horror – her niece Maisie is fifteen and lives in Totterdown. Kate's an actress, about to do As You Like It at the Bristol Old Vic. John Bright, close to Kate, manages to get himself detailed to the case. The chief suspect is Maisie's dad, an ex-hippie, guru to his students who congregate in his flat in a boat-house down by the docks. But who's the weirdo keeping a diary about the killing of young girls?
Elegantly written … uncommon depths of feeling and compassion. Birmingham Post
Centred round a trick worthy of Agatha Christie at her most cunning. The Scotsman
The reader is swept along. Donna Leon, Sunday Times
Publications: ~ ISBN: 751534730 Time Warner Paperback 2004 ~ ISBN: 750515430 Magna Books Large print hardback 2000 ~ ISBN: 009479250X Constable Hardback 1999
Mask of Betrayal
Kate Creech has been playing Medea at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. She returns to her little house in Kentish Town to find a body in her bath. It has been liquefying in her bath for six weeks. John bright is in charge of the case and another actress in his life he does not need. Kate fears she knows who the body is and therefore who the chief suspect will be. He's the one great love of her life and she, unable to live in her contaminated house, goes drive-about in her ancient yellow Beetle to solve the case for herself. Her odyssey takes her to Bristol, Glastonbury and the depths of rural Dorset. Bright gives her a lot of rope – she'll lead him in the right direction. The dangerous relations between Kate, her past lover and Bright become the centre of this story.
… With this book Maureen O'Brien moves to the highest echelon. Her style, spare and powerful, takes on an extra dimension from the knowledge the author shows (though without ostentation) of the work of Shakespeare and also of the most beautiful of the Greek tragedies … O'Brien is here established as an incomparably original writer who eliminates the barriers between "genre" and "literary" fiction … One can only congratulate her and patiently await the next book, also without doubt delectable. Julien Vedrenne, Le Litteraire
The second case translated into French of DI John Bright of Kentish Town Police CID, London NW5. A bloke who doesn't look anything special, an ordinary cop in the style of Columbo or Kurt Wallender (Hening Mankell's hero). He goes round and round the garden but never loses sight of the target. Maureen O'Brien writes in crisp short phrases, without padding, and masters the art of suspense, of taut dialogue as well as she conjures oppressive atmospheres. A very good crime novel, to consume without moderation. I look forward to book number three!!! Bernard Langlois, politis.fr
… Cop John Bright, clever and tenacious in the style of Columbo, grasps right away that Kate Creech is hiding something … however, he lets the actress lead a parallel investigation of her own into the New Age milieu of the victim. A finely honed plot, lively and chiselled dialogue, the novel is unfailingly the work of a dramatist. Maureen O'Brien knows how to convey murky atmospheres and troubled characters in short dry sentences, often with a quirky humour … To be consumed without moderation. Roger Gaillard, letemps.ch
The very model of what a mystery should be … captivatingly well written, full of interesting characters, loaded with suspense, with a real humdinger of a solution. The Scotsman
A superb, intelligent book, haunted by troubling moral implications and by the horrible image of a corpse. Express
O'Brien is a real talent. Donna Leon, Sunday Times
Publications: ~ ISBN: 751534722 Time Warner Paperback 2003 ~ ISBN: 075051437X Magna Books Large print hardback 1999 ~ ISBN: 94780900 Constable Hardback 1998
Deadly Reflection
Jen's a librarian at Kentish Town Library in North London. Her life's empty and when she meets Thomas, a beautiful, good, kind Dane whose wife has just left him she falls hook, line and sinker. Certain things disturb her – Thomas's secrecy about his family, the strange "wedding in the mirror" at his house in Epping Forest – but when Thomas wants to introduce her to his family in Denmark she doesn't hesitate. But her friends in Kentish Town get worried when John Bright reveals that the disappaearance of Thomas's wife is being treated as a suspicious death … The dreadful story climaxes in an ancient church on a clifftop overhanging the sea in a distant region of Denmark.
An escalation which gathers horrid and chilling momentum. Frances Fyfield, Evening Standard
Elegantly written, remorseless chiller. Manchester Evening News
Some of the most extraordinary characters ever created by a thriller writer … real depth and heart-stopping suspense. There isn't a literary novelist alive who can match O'Brien for psychological verity. Mat Coward, Morning Star
Publications: ~ ISBN: 978-2914851899 HB Editions Paperback 2008 ~ ISBN: 745167691 Chivers Audio Books Audio 1997 ~ ISBN: 747243743 Headline Paperback 1994 ~ ISBN: 750507047 Magna Large Print Books Hardback 1994 ~ ISBN: 074720859X Headline Hardback 1993
Swedish Edition Wahlström & Widstrand; Movie Script by O'Brien for Geoff Reeve Films; BBC Worldwide Audiobook
Close Up on Death
Millie Hale finds the body in an empty house in Belsize Park, North London. It's her best friend, Liza Drew, famous, beautiful TV star. A CID inspector turns up, small, dark. dressed in a scruffy leather bomber jacket, looks more like a crook than a copper. He's DI John Bright. The story hinges as much on the sizzling relationship between Bright and Millie as it does on who killed Liza Drew.
Thanks to HB who have had the happy idea of translating the cases of DI John Bright, the French reader can now discover, in the novelist Maureen O'Brien, a real original who is not content just to add another new series to the prolific English production-line. Anyone looking to find in Bright a clone of Frost, Morse or Barnaby will be disappointed. On the contrary, in spite of the deceptive sub-title (John Bright series) O'Brien's novels are much more about their heroines, Millie Hale or Kate Creech, than about Bright, a disconcerting individual, off-putting and not immediately seductive, who nevertheless insidiously gets into the hearts of the suspects and wins the sympathy of the reader. O'Brien has three other cards up her sleeve: first an acute ear for dialogue, ironic, caustic, profound and also simple. The same could be said of her heroines. The writer was reared on Wilde and Shaw as well as Shakespeare and therefore her characters have nothing of the stereotype. If the women are the driving force, lion-hearted, tenacious, determined, and if the men are often weak, spineless or arrogant, don't be fooled. Both equally engaging, Millie and Kate also show qualities of intrigue and manipulation and Bright is revealed as a being infinitely more complex than one could ever have predicted. Secondly, the setting and the plot. Maureen O'Brien, a distinguished British Actress, explores with brio the world of theatre of which she knows every detail. Plunged with her characters into the heart of the tragedy, the reader revels in this excursion into terra incognita. Thirdly, it would be wrong to conclude that the plot of these novels takes a back seat. In each of these narratives O'Brien has concocted a story as poisonous as could be wished, sometimes a little tangled for a reader without the brilliant deductive gifts of DI Bright, but which leaves us with an intense desire for more. Roger Martin, L'Humanité
The dark, inscrutable narrator finds her best friend, TV star Liza, dead in an empty house. She takes an instant dislike to the inspector in charge of the case. DI John Bright, a small man with the air of a crook. Very fast, Bright concentrates his investigation on those closest to Liza: the mother, a glacial snob, the boyfriend, an actor who behaves mysteriously, and Millie, our strange heroine, also an actress who takes over the role vacated by the dead Liza. In the spotlight, Millie blossoms. But the reader, who is in her confidence, learns that many secrets are choking this delicate flowering. The tone is striking from the start, full of contained rage and untold suffering and sensitivity. From a simple crime novel the mystery evolves into an astonishing love story among complex characters. Can a DI fall in love with a suspect? Can the love of your life leave you for your best friend. And you? Did you think you knew everything about yourself? The author Maureen O'Brien, actor and director, takes us into unpredictable byways of human destiny. HB Editions are publishing the whole Inspector John Bright series. More hypnotic reads to come. Caroline Gozzi, Femina Magazine
More than just a crime novel – the love interest is beautifully handled too, making this a gripping, hypnotic read. Woman's World
Unusual, excellent, really enjoyable debut. Spectator
Tight drama. A stunning debut. Mail on Sunday
Publications: ~ ISBN: 978-2914851882 HB Editions Paperback 2008 ~ ISBN: 373280270 Pocket Books Paperback 1995 ~ ISBN: 747244073 Headline Paperback 1993 ~ ISBN: 1850577587 Magna Books Large print paperback 1990 ~ ISBN: 1850577579 Magna Books Large print paperback 1990 ~ ISBN: 5550860872 St Martin's Press Hardcover 1989 ~ ISBN: 747231710 Headline Paperback 1989 ~ ISBN: 747201064 Headline Hardback 1989 ~ ISBN: 312033060 St Martin's Press (US Edition) Hardback 1989
Les fleurs sont faciles à tuer
Millie Hale, comédienne, découvre un corps dans une maison vide de Belsize Lane, au nord de Londres. C'est celui de sa meilleure amie Liza Drew, une superbe star de la télévision. Un inspecteur de la police judiciaire entre en scène: petit, sombre, vêtu d'un blouson de cuir marron. Il ressemble plus à un voyou qu'à un flic. C'est l'inspecteur John Bright.
Il concentre ses recherches sur les proches de Liza – sa mère, son compagnon et Millie, qui deviennent tous très vite suspects aux yeux du lecteur.
Maureen O'Brien a su tirer parti de son expérience de comédienne et de metteur en scène: l'intrigue se déroule dans les milieux du théâtre et de la télévision, sous les feux des médias; les dialogues sont rondement menés, les personnages sont complexes et authentiques; aucune fausse note ne se glisse dans les situations décrites.
Une intrigue impéccable. Un début fracassant. Mail on Sunday
Publications: ~ ISBN: 2914581513 HB Editions Paperback 2006 ~ ISBN: 2914581513 HB Editions Paperback 2006
Traduit de l'anglais (GB) par Lalla LendaÀ l'inattendu les dieux livrent passage
On trouve un cadavre en décomposition dans la maison londonnienne de l'actrice Kate Creech. Celle-ci était absente depuis huit semaines, jouant Médée (d'où est extrait le titre du roman) à Coventry. Au début, John Bright est décontenancé: encore une actrice … (Cf. Les fleurs sont faciles à tuer.) Que penser d'elle? De ses amis? Aucune porte n'a été forcée, mais il s'avère très vite que beaucoup de gens ont pu avoir les clefs de la maison. Bright se prend au jeu et va mener une enquête passionnante qui le conduira vers le milieu New Age et une communauté aux allures de secte …
Publications: ~ ISBN: 978-2914581734 HB Editions Hardback 2006
Traduit de l'anglais (GB) par Lalla LendaClick on the image of a book cover to visit a bookseller website …
