Press Release:

The Devil's Feather
Minette Walters

The Devil's Feather is the much-anticipated new thriller from Britain 's number 1 Crime Writer
Published on 8 September 2005 at £17.99

When five women are brutally murdered in Sierra Leone , Reuters' correspondent Connie Burns questions the arrest of three rebel soldiers for the crimes. No one listens. In the wake of a vicious civil war, which saw hundreds and thousands killed and displaced, who cares about a few dead women and three child soldiers who were beaten into a confession?

Suspecting the killings to be the work of a foreigner who uses the chaos of war to act out his sadistic fantasies against women, Connie sets about trying to expose the truth and unearth his secret, but with devastating consequences. After escaping his clutches in Iraq , she returns to England terrified, degraded and destroyed and goes into hiding in Dorset ... knowing it is just a matter of time before he tracks her down...

Minette Walters has written eleven highly acclaimed psychological thrillers. She won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Award for the best first crime novel of 1992, with her debut novel, The Ice House. Rapidly establishing a reputation as one of the most exciting crime novelists writing today, her second novel, The Sculptress , won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for the best crime novel published in America in 1993. In 1994, Minette Walters achieved a unique triple when The Scold's Bridle was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year. Her following novels The Dark Room, The Echo, The Breaker, The Shape of Snakes, Acid Row, Fox Evil, and Disordered Minds were published to worldwide critical acclaim. The Shape of Snakes was awarded the Pelle Rosencrantz Prize in Denmark in 2000. Acid Row was shortlisted for the 2002 CWA Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction, and for the Grand Prix des Lectrices d'Elle in France. Acid Row was a number one bestseller for Pan in 2002 and is currently in production with Company Pictures. In 2003, Minette was once again awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction for Fox Evil . In June 2004, The Tinder Box was published in Macmillan Hardback.

The Devil's Feather will also be published in Macmillan audio, read by Saskia Wickham. (Three cassettes priced £10.99 inc. VAT. Four CDs, priced £12.99 inc VAT.)

Minette Walters lives in Dorset with her husband and two children. She has worked as a magazine editor but is now a full-time writer.

For further information, please contact Philippa McEwan
on 020 7014 6179, or email p.mcewan@macmillan.co.uk.