Joe Donovan Books

"Rare and fantastic."- The Philadelphia Inquirer "London's dark heart has seldom been exposed with such surgical precision. Brutal, mesmerizing stuff."-Ian Rankin "Highly recommended for adult mystery collections."- Library Journal (starred review) "A beautifully written and constructed thriller. . . . Raw violence explodes on almost every page, and there are some artfully awful villains."- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A powerful writer who creates memorable characters who live in the memory as well as on the page. The Mercy Seat flies, with no stop in the action and tension. The skillful dialogue reminds me of Ken Bruen."-Otto Penzler "An ambitious, tautly plotted thriller that offers a stark antidote to P.D. James' cozy world of middle-class murder. A huge talent."- Time Out London "A sometimes brutal, sometimes poetic journey through the dark heart of modern London, and confirms Waites as of the brightest stars in British crime writing."-John Connolly A research scientist has gone missing. An ace newspaper reporter has disappeared and so has a minidisk, along with its incriminating evidence. And a teenage hustler is on the run. In his pursuer, the Hammer, a skin-headed professional killer, the principle of evil has indeed been made flesh. Unsettling and unpredictable, this compelling page-turner delivers point-blank its every unexpected narrative hit, twist, and turn as it leads protagonist Joe Donovan to the terror of the mercy seat.

The body is discovered in a disused burial ground. A young woman, ritualistically mutilated, her eyes and mouth crudely sewn shut. Her boyfriend is arrested and charged with the murder. He might have a vicious temper and a history of violence towards women, but is Michael Nell really a killer? Michael's lawyer doesn't think so. She's hired Joe Donovan to prove his alibi. Donovan's investigations lead him into the murky world of people trafficking and illegal prostitution. But when the second body shows up, he realises it's not just local gangsters he's up against - but a deranged serial killer. A killer obsessed with the city's dark history. A killer who leaves clues pointing to his twisted plan. And if Donovan and his team can't decipher those messages in time, a killer who will kill again ...

The third novel in the acclaimed Joe Donovan series by "Britain's answer to Michael Connelly" (Ken Bruen). When the savagely beaten body of a Muslim student is discovered in a rundown area of Newcastle, blame falls on the far right National Unity Party―but for once they appear to be innocent. In fact, with elections looming, they are poised to make significant gains. Not the best time for Trevor Whitman, ex-70s radical, to return to his native northeast. Haunted by his violent past, he's receiving death threats over the murder of a policeman years ago.Joe Donovan, the hero of Martyn Waites' acclaimed trilogy of thrillers, is called in to investigate. After the death of a supposed suicide bomber, the investigation takes a more dangerous turn as Donovan and his team find themselves the targets of a ruthless killer unlike any they have faced before. A killer who will do anything to ensure an explosive thirty-year-old secret remains buried. Anything―even orchestrating a brutal race war that will tear the city apart, with Donovan caught in the middle.

In the new Joe Donovan thriller, Waites’ ravaged hero must help a woman determine if her recent visions are related to the death of a young boy. Anne Marie is back in the hometown she hasn't seen for forty years, trying to live a normal life with her partner and teenage son. But that's impossible for Anne Marie. Because forty years ago, when she was eleven, she killed a little boy. She is trying to make peace with her past by telling her story to journalist Joe Donovan. But it's not that simple. Suffering from horrifying visions, she sometimes does bad things. Things she has no memory of afterward. So when a teenager on her housing estate is murdered and she wakes up with blood on her hands, Anne Marie naturally fears the worst. Her fragile life falling apart, Anne Marie turns to those she loves. But where she was expecting support, she finds only betrayal. Desperate, she turns to Donovan for help. But Donovan may have his own reasons for helping her..reasons that have to do with the disappearance of his own son...