#169 Signed copy of I KNOW WHAT I SAW by Imran Mahmood

'Don't miss this one' T. M. LOGAN
'Mercilessly addictive and deeply thought-provoking' CHRIS WHITAKER
'A tense literary thriller packed with moments of pathos' SARAH VAUGHAN
'A white-knuckle ride' CHRIS BROOKMYRE
'A welcome return for a supremely talented writer' ABIR MUKHERJEE

I saw it. He smothered her, pressing his hands on her face. The police don't believe me, they say it's impossible - but I know what I saw.

Xander Shute - once a wealthy banker, now living on the streets - shelters for the night in an empty Mayfair flat. When he hears the occupants returning home, he scrambles to hide. Trapped in his hiding place, he hears the couple argue, and he soon finds himself witnessing a vicious murder.

But who was the dead woman, who the police later tell him can't have been there? And why is the man Xander saw her with evading justice?

As Xander searches for answers, his memory of the crime comes under scrutiny, forcing him to confront his long-buried past and the stories he's told about himself.

How much he is willing to risk to understand the brutal truth?

About the author:

Imran Mahmood is a British novelist and barrister. His first novel You Don't Know Me (2017), which was shortlisted for the Glass Bell Award in 2018, is due to be dramatised for the BBC in 2021. It was also longlisted for the 2018 best crime novel of the year, both by the Crime Writers' Association (for the CWA Gold Dagger award) and by the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (awarded annually at the Harrogate International Festivals). In 2020, the BBC announced it was adapting a four-part dramatisation, to be directed by Sarmad Masud.

Mahmood's second book (which you will win!) is a thriller about a murder in the affluent London district of Mayfair, has been purchased by Raven Books, the new crime imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. Its narrator, formerly a wealthy banker, meets scepticism when police cannot confirm his account of witnessing murder.