Twelve Days

Paul A Williams

Ten people. Twelve days. One killer. Ten people meet for a reunion at a remote castle, organised by a preacher who once held them in a Christian cult. One by one, the old friends are brutally murdered, and yet their killer remains hidden in their very midst. Rafe attends the reunion at the castle for one reason only: to settle once and for all how he really feels about his childhood obsession, Suzanne. Rivalry reignites at the outset as the men who all loved and fought over Suzanne are brought together once more. Is Suzanne the reason for these serial killings? Is the murderer a jealous unrequited lover? Or is she the femme fatale with a bloody agenda? As tension mounts, Rafe must play this deadly game in order to identify and neutralise the hidden serial killer before he himself becomes the next victim! Twelve Days is a twisty, gripping and claustrophobic crime thriller which you won't be able to put down. It will appeal to fans of authors like Mark Edwards, John Marrs and Caroline Mitchell. Research Background The resurgence of the locked-room mystery in the last few years (TV series, film, novel) suggests that, in spite of its strict formulaic parameters, this sub-genre of crime fiction can interrogate, innovate and renew itself as a popular and literary narrative form. Performing the formula expectations of this sub-genre allows writers a space for fruitful experimentation, innovation and new knowledge, in particular revisiting classical Aristotelian catharsis, replicating contemporary psycho-analytic practice, and revitalising the post-structural spaces between author/ criminal and reader/detective. Research Contribution Twelve Days is an intertextual palimpsest of an archetypal Agatha Christie locked-room mystery novel, And Then There Were None (1939), which uses reader-response theory and macro-reading methods in order to ‘write the novel backwards’ and fulfil/disrupt reader expectations; uses discourse analysis to interrogate fundamentalist discourse; employs methods of psycho-therapy for a cathartic exploration of ‘civilisation and its discontents’ (Freud, 1930); and layers intertextual clues for the characters (and readers) to solve: namely, medieval numerology, hidden meanings of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ (1780), Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1563) and Biblical verses. Research Significance Twelve Days demonstrates that this sub-genre can be renewed and invigorated by dissecting rather than reinforcing narrative tropes. The novel was published by a leading independent UK crime publisher, Bloodhound Books, reached #15 on the Amazon bestseller list, received five-star reviews, was longlisted for the ‘Not the Booker Guardian Prize’, and is the subject of two conference papers submitted to Q1 journals.

Twelve Days

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