The Dying Squad

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What to expect

'Darkly entertaining police procedural with a difference' CRIME REVIEW

'Fizzes with life' - STUART TURTON, Costa First Novel Award winner

'A thrilling ride with dark humour, action and a touching side that's hard to forget' SUN five stars (book of the week)



WHO BETTER TO SOLVE A MURDER THAN A DEAD DETECTIVE?



When Detective Inspector Joe Lazarus storms a Lincolnshire farmhouse, he expects to bring down a notorious drug gang; instead, he discovers his own dead body and a spirit guide called Daisy-May.

She's there to enlist him to the Dying Squad, a spectral police force made up of the recently deceased. Joe soon realises there are fates far worse than death. To escape being stuck in purgatory, he must solve his own murder.

Reluctantly partnering with Daisy-May, Joe faces dangers from both the living and the dead in the quest to find his killer - before they kill again.

Recruits are loving THE DYING SQUAD:

'At times evocative of Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series, but without its hardboiled cynicism, this is an impressive and memorable debut' CRIME TIME

'Whip-smart, fresh with a dash of dark humour, The Dying Squad is a wildly entertaining read. Highly recommended' - ADAM HAMDY, Sunday Times bestselling author

'Adam has crafted something unique with The Dying Squad, mashing fantasy and crime together in a way I've not seen before . . . I'm sure it will be a huge success' - JAMES OSWALD, author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series

'Superbly plotted and packs an emotional heft rarely seen in a debut' - MW CRAVEN, CWA Gold Dagger Award winner

'Funny, creepy and compelling' - ANNA STEPHENS, acclaimed author of Godblind

'Grim, wry and inventive, a twisting tale with both guts and heart. Never has Lincolnshire seemed more desolate, or more menacing' - DAVID WRAGG, The Black Hawks

Critics Review

  • Untameably original, so stylish and packed with a biting humour

    Rob Parker, author of A Wanted Man
  • THE DYING SQUAD is one of those books that fizzes with life. Every page has a new idea, or a funny line, and Daisy May is just a brilliant character to spend time with. Also, the ending arrives in a steel-tipped boot. Well played Adam

    Stuart Turton, Sunday Times bestelling author and winner of the Costa First Novel Award for The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
  • Excellent. Funny, creepy and “oh no he did not just throw that twist in there” compelling’

    Anna Stephens, author of The Godblind trilogy
  • Grim, wry and inventive, a twisting tale with both guts and heart. Never has Lincolnshire seemed more desolate, or more menacing

    David Wragg, The Black Hawks
  • Whip-smart, fresh with a dash of dark humour, The Dying Squad is a wildly entertaining read. Highly recommended

    Adam Hamdy
  • A thrilling ride with dark humour, action and a touching side that’s hard to forget

    The Sun

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