An Image to Die For

Behind the scenes of television production journalist-turned-investigator, Sam Dean, discovers greed, ugliness and murder.

When a TV producer offers journalist Sam Dean the job of tracking down a suspect in the brutal murder of a young woman and her child, he's reluctant to get involved. But when a colleague is stabbed to death on set, it’s clear something bigger is going on.

And when threatening anonymous notes start arriving, Sam is forced to dig for the truth…

Standing astride 1980s London’s sharp racial divides, An Image to Die For is a crime thriller perfect for fans of S.A. Cosby and Walter Mosley.

“Praise for Mike Phillips 'This is Mike Phillips's best novel, brutal and caring, totally authentic' The Times 'Phillips delivers his seamy tale with an enviably warm spareness of effect' Sunday Times 'An incisive study of immigrant experience wrapped up in a gripping thriller' Times Literary Supplement 'The Best British thriller in years... A novel that seems to have been written for a purpose; it deals with the black British community as something other than a problem or a political clich”

Praise for Mike Phillips
‘This is Mike Phillips’s best novel, brutal and caring, totally authentic’
The Times

‘Phillips delivers his seamy tale with an enviably warm spareness of effect’
Sunday Times

‘An incisive study of immigrant experience wrapped up in a gripping thriller’
Times Literary Supplement

‘The Best British thriller in years… A novel that seems to have been written for a purpose; it deals with the black British community as something other than a problem or a political cliché’
Marie Claire

‘Could have come from the pen of the master, Raymond Chandler’
Today

A thriller which maintains pace and provides excitements rooted in reality … a winner’
Guardian

‘There’s much here to suggest that Phillips could be one of our bravest, most incisive social commentators’
Mail on Sunday

Phillips’ depictions of urban London share more with Harlem and Los Angeles than the English drawing rooms of P.D. James and Ruth Rendell’
Financial Times

‘Phillips… gives a mean streetwise documentary edge to his hero’s hunt for a witness’
Sunday Express

‘Mr Phillips writes in a precise uncluttered style that suits the detective novel’s ritualistic form. But it is the sensibility of his hero – a black man – that lends freshness to the form itself’
The New York Times Book Review

‘As a political thriller it has something to say about multi-cultural Britain that is both revealing and intelligent … a good novel, deftly handled and deserving of praise’
Time Out

Mike Phillips is the author of several books and screenplays as well as his award-winning Sam Dean novels, published by HarperCollins. In 1997 he was Writer in Residence at London’s South Bank Centre.

Behind the scenes of television production journalist-turned-investigator, Sam Dean, discovers greed, ugliness and murder. When a TV producer offers journalist Sam Dean the job of tracking down a suspect in the brutal murder of a young woman and her child, he's reluctant to get involved. But when a colleague is stabbed to death on set, it's clear something bigger is going on. And when threatening anonymous notes start arriving, Sam is forced to dig for the truth... Standing astride 1980s London's sharp racial divides, An Image to Die For is a crime thriller perfect for fans of S.A. Cosby and Walter Mosley.

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