The Bloody Meadow

William Ryan was called to the English bar after university in Dublin, then worked as a lawyer in the City. His novels THE HOLY THIEF, THE BLOODY MEADOW and THE TWELFTH DEPARTMENT set in 1930s Stalinist Russia, have been shortlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year Award, the CWA New Blood Dagger, the Irish Fiction Award and twice for the Ireland AM Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award. William is married and lives in West London.

'The Holy Thief, set in Stalin's Russia, was one of last year's most impressive crime fiction debuts. The Bloody Meadow, William Ryan's follow-up, does not disappoint ... Ryan has obviously done much research into that sinister period of Russian history and manages to convey its claustrophobic atmosphere brilliantly' Marcel Berlins, The Times 'An outstanding thriller ... could be the set-up for an exotic Agatha Christie mystery, except that Ryan is so alert to the psychology of his characters and so persuasive in suggesting ominous political forces that the book transcends its mechanistic limitations -- the process of "putting facts together and producing possibilities from them", as Korolev sums up his job' Independent Ireland 'Thrilling. 4 stars' Daily Express 'A novel that confirms Ryan's talent' Sunday Times 'Every bit as darkly compelling as its predecessor with all the elements that made The Holy Thief so successful: razor-sharp plotting, an evocative sense of location in a vividly realised Ukraine and most winning of all the vulnerably human Alexei Korolev making a nuisance of himself' Daily Express 'Last year, with William Ryan's The Holy Thief, detective-fiction aficionados welcomed the thrillingly horrific first instalment in a new series set in 1930s Moscow ... in this second instalment Ryan has produced a film-noir-ish rewrite of the old-fashioned locked-room mystery, complete with creepily gripping, and ultimately gruesome, cops and robbers chase through the great catacombs on which Odessa sits, while Stalin's man-made terror-famine, which scorched through the Ukraine half a decade before the book opens, is only gestured at, in elliptical speech and ultimately in the characters' motivations. Yet what remains constant is Ryan's ability to display a foreign mindset while appearing to be entirely at home in the vernacular. His ear for dialogue is acute ... But Ryan's primary purpose remains the serious depiction of the hellish hall of mirrors that was