Nuri Bey saw something floating towards him on the current. It appeared to be something in a boat, some cross-shaped object. He approached more closely as it bobbed and bowed with the tide.

What he thought he saw was too fantastic to be believed: the mast of the small water-logged fishing boat formed the upright of a cross - and on it hung a naked man. A traditional Turkish method of dealing with an enemy ...

'Pleasingly offbeat' Observer

'Wit and humour - a real piece of Turkish delight' BBC


In the Red

by Joan Fleming

Published January 2002

After twenty years as a bank clerk, Leslie Williams can stand the daily round no longer. He plans a crime - nothing very heinous, nothing more than a little dishonesty and a lot of unkindness. Yet, once he has made the first fatal move, he finds himself gathered into a fantastic web of adventure, mischance and danger.

The story takes place in London: the seedy hotel in Cromwell Road and the open-air market where he finds work as a salesman. And Leslie Williams is a man who has broken loose, who doesn't know quite what dangers are hunting him from the past, or what sense can be made of the present or future ...

'Imaginative, lively and picaresque' Maurice Richardson