We’ve been counting down the days and it’s time for the world’s most unlikely detective to arrive.
Laurence Anholt’s Mindful Detective: Art of Death is published today by Little, Brown / Constable.
The first novel in the series, the story follows the unusual partners in counter-crime, DI Shanti Joyce and “Mindful Detective” Vince Craine in their quest to uncover the truth…
When a famously narcissistic performance artist is found floating in a tank of formaldehyde at her own private view, suspicion falls on those closest to her.
Leading the murder investigation is DI Shanti Joyce, recently transferred from London to Yeovil following the collapse of her marriage and a case that went wrong. She soon concludes that the mystery requires left-field thinking, and when a colleague at the station suggests Vince Caine, aka the Mindful Detective, Shanti tracks him down at his remote cabin.
The pair delve into the artist’s Bohemian circle and discover a hotbed of resentment and jealousy stretching all the way back to her scandalous art school days in Falmouth. But as they soon realise, the murderer is both canny and elusive – someone with a complex, warped motive who will do anything to point them elsewhere.
Can the unlikely mix of her down-to-earth pragmatism and his otherworldly intuition really prove a winning combination?
Or will a killer escape justice and leave Shanti’s reputation in tatters?
In a career spanning 30 years Laurence Anholt has produced more than 200 books in dozens of languages, for every age from babies to adults.
These include his multi-award winning Young Adult novel, The Hypnotist, published by Penguin Random House. Laurence comes from a Dutch family with roots stretching back to Persia. He has a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from the Royal Academy in London. He lives and works in an upside-down eco-house on a hill overlooking the sea in Devon. Laurence is married to the artist, Catherine Anholt. They have three grown up children and three grandchildren.
