Deadly Mr Duckworth

Morris Duckworth can't get over Massimina, or Mimi, as he likes to refers to her. But then, he should have thought of that before he kidnapped and killed her. Only now, living in Verona and married to Mimi's sister, does he appreciate how much he misses her and how blindly he has stumbled into a trap of fate. Struggling to adjust to his good fortune, with a lavish house and cushy job, our unsavory hero finds that his new success is rife with tribulation: not least his pushy bride's staggering sexual appetite and his nosy brother-in-law's meddling questions. So when he visits Mimi's grave and her charming photograph winks at him, he's ready for her advice. Mimi seems to be suggesting a path to Christian redemption: he will help the poor African immigrants of Verona. But is his sudden altruism genuine or a cover for further malfeasance? And why, despite his apparent sincerity, are those who get in his charitable way so prone to "accidents"? The dark and funny sequel to Cara Massimina, Mimi's Ghost is the ultimate comedy of self-justification.

Morris Duckworth has a dark past. Having married and murdered his way into a wealthy Italian family, he has become a respected member of Veronese business life. But it's not enough. Never satisfied with being anything short of the best, he comes up with a plan to put on the most exciting art exhibition of the decade, based on a subject close to his heart: killing. All the great slaughters of scripture and classical times will be on show, from Cain and Abel, to Brutus and Caesar. But as Morris meets stiff resistance from the director of Verona's Castelvecchio museum, everything starts to unravel around him. His children are rebelling, his mistress is asking for more than he wants to give, his wife is increasingly attached to her aging confessor, and, worst of all, it's getting harder and harder to ignore the ghosts that swirl around him, and the skeletons rattling in every closet. The shame of it is that Morris Arthur Duckworth really did not want to have to kill again. Tim Parks' acclaimed Duckworth trilogy has been thirty years in the making. In Painting Death, he brings it-and his serial-killer alter ego-to a very fitting-and very funny-end. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction-novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.