Callum Burke Books

‘A near-perfect heart-stoppingly intense NY crime story’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Edge of your seat, heart in your mouth kind of action’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ *** New York, 1995. Cop Callum Burke arrives in New York from Hong Kong, drafted in as part of an international investigation into organised crime. With the handover of Hong Kong to China only a couple of years away, gangsters are moving their operations out of the territory and into New York ahead of the looming deadline. Burke’s experiences with East Asian crime and the Triads’ links to the Irish Mob make him the perfect man to send in undercover. But as he infiltrates these vast and lethal criminal networks, bodies start to pile up in his wake and his conscience threatens to send him over the edge. And when Burke’s NYPD handlers push him to continue the investigation at all costs, he may have to cross the line from cop to criminal just to stay alive… Readers of Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, Steve Cavanagh, Richard Price and John Sandford will love this dark and morally complex novel which presents a searing portrait of mid-1990s New York as you’ve never seen it before. *** PRAISE FOR RAT ISLAND AND JOHN STEELE: ‘A non-stop thrill ride filled with intrigue, action and suspense’ Gerald Posner ‘ John Steele writes with grit, pace and authenticity. Fans of Don Winslow will love this ’ Claire McGowan ‘ A real contender for crime book of the year ’ David Peace ‘ Steele’s fourth novel [RAT ISLAND] should make him a stablemate of the likes of Michael Connelly. Intricate plotting, characters making questionable moral choices, gut-wrenching action and a momentum that never flags all make for a work that takes a pneumatic drill to the fragile veneer of respectability that disguises modern, urban life.’ South China Morning Post ‘ After RAT ISLAND, I’ll be reading John Steele from now on. You should too ’ Garth Ennis ‘ RAT ISLAND speeds and thrashes with the dangerous energy of the Manhattan streets which are so vividly recalled ’ Gary Donnelly ‘ John Steele is going to be one of crime writing’s elite ’ Ken Bruen ‘ A writer of huge promise ’ Irish Independent ‘ Remarkable ’ Sunday Times *** John Steele was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 1995, at the age of twenty-two he travelled to the United States and has since lived and worked on three continents, including a thirteen-year spell in Japan. Among past jobs he has been a drummer in a rock band, an illustrator, a truck driver and a teacher of English. He now lives in England with his wife and daughter. He began writing short stories, selling them to North American magazines and fiction digests. He has published three previous novels: RAVENHILL, SEVEN SKINS and DRY RIVER, the first of which was longlisted for a CWA Debut Dagger award. John’s books have been described as ‘Remarkable’ by the Sunday Times , ‘Dark and thrilling’ by Claire McGowan, and ‘Spectacular’ by Tony Parsons. The Irish Independent called John ‘a writer of huge promise’ and Gary Donnelly appointed him ‘the undisputed champion of the modern metropolitan thriller’.

‘HARD-BOILED AND CRACKLING WITH INTENSITY. JOHN STEELE GETS UNDER THE SKIN OF THE NYPD AS WELL AS ANYONE WRITING TODAY’ T. J. English ‘DARK, HARD-HITTING AND FAST MOVING’ Thomas Mullen *** HIS BIGGEST CASE YET. BUT IT COULD BE HIS LAST… NYPD officer Callum Burke is on a routine drugs raid when he bursts in on a scene of monstrous horror – and two killers about to get away. The men are caught but they won’t talk. All the cops learn is that they’re Russian and extremely dangerous which means this could be the start of a savage new gang war. Callum Burke is assigned to the investigation. It’s Manhattan in 1997 and the city is being cleaned up. The pressure is on. But when Callum discovers there might be more to the Russian involvement than just criminal gangs, he finds himself in deeper trouble than he’s ever known… *** ‘ Hard and intriguing. Callum Burke is a cop on the edge ’ David Albertyn ‘ The Sky Turned Black will make your head spin ’ T. J. English ‘ A crime saga that combines gritty detail with a global scope ’ Thomas Mullen