Foreign Detective

Tangier, a sweeping novel of romance and intrigue set in a fabled North African resort, may remind readers of the Alexandria Quartet. In this book Tangier is more than just a place; it is a city of unholy loves. Titled Europeans, Moroccan hustlers, aging former Nazis, decadents of every sort play out their rituals, competing for stunning lovers and social power.Their schemes and passions are a subject of fascination to the hero of the book, a brilliant young police inspector. But even as he is fascinated he is also repelled, searching always to understand the privileged foreign colony, to unravel its weave of secrets. He finds the key, finally, in the person of a beautiful Eurasian woman, whose own mysterious past he manages to unveil. Through her eyes he comes to see Tangier in a new way. Sustained by her love he rediscovers the city and finds a different role in it for himself.Against the drama of this love story other characters emerge: An America Consul becomes embroiled in an affair with his Vice-Consul's wife. A retired British character actor strives to preserve his dignity as his friends betray him and he feels an intimation of his death. A Canadian gossip columnist struggles not to lose himself in the gay world of Tangier. There is a young Frenchman corrupted by his love for an older woman; a radical Arab surgeon; a fifth-rate Soviet spy-a "burnt-out case"; squabbling writers; cruel social arbiters; a male prostitute named "Pumpkin Pie".Watched closely by the police inspector as they slip in and out of each others' lives, these and other characters ignore the storm that gathers slowly above their town. In the end it sweeps them up with dizzying force. Tangier is revealed in a violent and dazzling finale.PRAISE FOR TANGIERPublisher's Weekly: "Colorful - panoramic - an atmospheric novel of conflict, vengeance, intrigue and deceit against the exotic background that is Tangier - a novel which also possesses genuine psychological insights."Washington Post: "The city is the main character of this intricate novel in which East and West meet convulsively and with mutual puzzlement. William Bayer keeps scrupulously the narrative promises he has made and implied, the strands woven so cleverly and in such complex patterns, dyed with a strong influence of atmosphere, that one proceeds willingly, even hastily, through the close-packed pages. As the pages turn and evidence accumulates, its hard to avoid the conclusion that what we have on our hands is the work of a moralist. Bayer conceals what he is up to with considerable skill until the reader is firmly hooked and it is too late to back out."Erie PA Times: "You can't possibly read the novel Tangier by William Bayer without wanting someday to visit this exotic North African city. Tangier would be worth reading if it were nothing more than a novel of mood, a travelogue, in effect, describing one of the most mysterious cities in the world. But Bayer's Tangier is much more than that; it is also a fine thriller and a psychological novel of considerable insight."Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Tangier is a compulsive page-turner. Once you begin this exotic, erotic novel about the foreign colony in the Moroccan city of the title, you'll not be able to stop. In short, William Bayer's Tangier contains all the ingredients a reader could ask of an atmospheric action novel. But the book is more, a psychological novel of extraordinary insights. This is a novel that stays in the mind." Los Angeles Times: "The graceful prose is as dazzling as the white washed city in full sun..."Harvard Magazine: "Titled Europeans jostle Moroccan hustlers and aging Nazis in an unremitting struggle for lovers and social power. Atmospheric fiction tinged with cynicism."

Geoffrey Barnett is a photographer. Due to a mysterious trauma in his past, he has for many years been unable to photograph people. When Kimberly Yates suddenly enters his life, Geoffrey's world is turned upside down. She nurtures him back to life-emotionally, mentally and sexually. Eventually he is able to photograph her.Then she disappears.Like a puff of smoke, as if she were just a dream, a vision that Geoffrey has conjured up.As he begins to search for Kimberly, Geoffrey discovers that perhaps she was a dream. Soon, he begins to wish that she weren't real, because his obsession with her turns his life from dream into a nightmare. As he discovers the truth about Kimberly she leads him down a path of greed, deceit and blackmail. It is a road littered with sexual perversions and struggles for power, with unbelievable pleasures and even greater pain, with powerful love and passion for life and, inevitably, the terror of death."Has all the ingredients for a dark and sultry noir novel." - New York Times"A smashing film noir on paper. An irresistible brew with a wicked kick...Unstoppable entertainment." - Kirkus Reviews"A strong riveting thriller...This one's in the top tier." - Publishers Weekly"The climax is staggering. Bayer is a master of delicious intricacy; his fans will love every twist he throws at them here." - Booklist"A world of murder, blackmail, double-crosses and redouble-crosses, all against a backdrop of obsessive sex, plain and kinky...Its pace is fast, its temperature high." - Los Angeles Times"A terrific page-turner... The best yet from one of the best writers of suspense." - Cleveland Plain Dealer"Compulsive reading...power games, manipulation, rampant greed, blackmail, sex, violence and murder." - Scotland On Sunday

CITY OF KNIVES is a psychological thriller set in one of the world's most fascinating cities. The destinies of four main characters, each pursuing his/her own agenda, intersect in Buenos Aires.MARTA ABECASIS, homicide detective, known as La Incorrupta ("the incorruptible one") is assigned to investigate the murder of a prostitute. As her investigation unfolds she uncovers a political conspiracy involving powerful people who will stop at nothing to obstruct her.BETH BROWDER, a San Francisco teacher, comes to Buenos Aires to search for her missing lover and to immerse herself in the tango. Soon after her arrival she is drawn into a frightening decadent demimonde that pushes her to the brink of madness.DR. TOMS HUDSON, a psychoanalyst specializing in the treatment of the damaged children of los desaparecidos ("the disappeared ones"), is approached by an extortionist offering to sell him the name of the person responsible for the arrest and murder of his wife.HANK BARNES, a militaria dealer, is hired by an anonymous stranger to travel to Buenos Aires to retrieve a long-lost jewel-encrusted dagger that once belonged to Nazi leader, Hermann Goering. As he pursues this quest, he suspects he is being manipulated by the intelligence service of a foreign government.Other characters include a corrupt priest, a young investigative journalist, an incestuous brother-sister, and an imprisoned right-wing military leader. The city in which they cross paths becomes a character itself Buenos Aires, rich and cruel, haunted by a violent past, a gorgeous city of intrigue and decay, a dangerous city...a City Of Knives.William Bayer is the author of numerous crime novels published in ebook and audiobook form by Crossroad Press. His books have won the Best Novel Edgar Award, the Lambda Prize, and the French prizes, Prix Mystere de Critique. He lives in the California wine country with his wife, food writer Paula Wolfert.From Reviews of the French Language Edition:QUOTIDIEM NATIONAL: "A breath taking plunge into the plagues and wounds of a capital city haunted by 'disappeared ones' and dictatorship, rot and false appearances. Saturated by the tango, this is a captivating novel."LIBERATION: "Intrigue reminiscent of the thrillers of John Le Carre. Superb!"LE PARISIEN: "My heart was captured by William Bayer's City Of Knives. A series of murders that recall the torture methods of the dictatorship, and, in parallel, a young American woman passionate about tango. The author captures the essence of South America."EXPRESSION ACTIVE: "A profound immersion in Argentina revealed by the author...a majestic work, masterly and passionate."Film director, CLAUDE CHABROL: "A great noir novel."

It begins when the strangely marked body of a young prostitute is found just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. A similarly disfigured corpse of an American nun turns up. Then an Arab boy. As the list of victims grows, their only apparent connection is the bizarre markings on their bodies, it appears that Israel is facing its first serial murder case.David Bar-Lev, chief of the Pattern Crimes Unit of the Jerusalem police, is not so sure. A tough yet sensitive investigator with a powerful intelligence and a querying mind, he begins searching for a pattern that will explain the apparently random killings.At first the disorder is overwhelming, the case unfathomable. But then, as David probes deeper into this particular pattern crime, he is not so sure he wants to understand it. Pieces emerge that suggest that this time the key may lie within his own life. During the course of his investigation he must uncover and confront many painful secrets: The mysterious behavior of his father, Avraham, a retired psychoanalyst; The tragic suicide of his brother, Gideon, a talented fighter pilot; The hidden past of his beautiful Russian lover, the cellist Anna; The possibility of corruption within the Jerusalem police and the ultra-secret General Security Services(Shin Bet).But despite the pain of these and other revelations, David probes on until he finally glimpses his astonishing solutionfor, as one cop says of David Bar-Lev, "It is not enough for him to investigate. David has to understand."The Jerusalem of Pattern Crimes is not the idealized Holy City of the guidebooks. Depicted as the capital of an angry, anguished, torn-up nation, a city of prostitutes, narcotics dealers, lusting journalists, ruthless politicians and zealots of every stripe, it becomes here an arena for a remarkable story of crime and punishment.This is a book about patterns in love, in relationships, in politics, in art, in death. And always at the center is David Bar-Lev, one of the most memorable characters in recent crime fiction, relentlessly searching for the pattern that will unlock his case the pattern he must uncover in order to clarify his vision of himself, his family, and the country that he loves.With Pattern Crimes William Bayer raises the detective novel to a new level of excellence. In the best-selling tradition of his previous novel, Switch, he has created a powerful story of psychological suspense and one of the strongest, most intriguing novels of recent years.PRAISE FOR PATTERN CRIMES:New York Times: "William Bayer has the reader panting to keep up with the pace he sets in 'Pattern Crimes.' The novel's virtues: its intriguing intellectual hero, the multi-layered humanity he encounters in his investigations, and his fascinating observations on a Jerusalem no casual tourist gets to see."San Francisco Examiner: "Bayer has got the real stuff: a pounding narrative line; real people you can identify with; dialogue that snaps with authority even as it advances the exposition; a riveting sense of locale. Bayer is the new king of the crime fiction heap. At a minimum he has written one unputdownable book."Kirkus Reviews (starred review): "A richly dramatic and thoughtful police procedural, a sort of 'Gorky Park' set in Jerusalem. Provocative and intelligent entertainment."Newsday: "'Pattern Crimes' is a surprise from beginning to end. Bayer takes us on a psychological roller-coaster of a trip that is harrowing yet always controlled."Washington Post: "There is an electricity to Bayer's writing - rich design, crackling fabric - that sets it apart from the usual competent thriller. Bayer is a bona fide novelist, you first think to yourself, but it is really the combination of the two, formula writer and writer-writer (not unlike Dashiell Hammett) that