'pacey and wickedly engrossing' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'has everything necessary to keep you turning the pages' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD a chilling story of murder and revenge ... He'd taken the man into the bathroom. The woman, still naked, followed. This was the part he didn't really like, but he stayed quiet. Otherwise he might not get his reward. He listened to her instructions, supporting the dead man's weight and holding his arm over the sink. She had a knife and used it to cut away at the skin and sinew at the wrist. Blood dripped into the wash basin and they were careful to make sure it didn't fall anywhere else ... Quickly, all the flesh and muscle was pared away from the carpus joints, revealing the pale bone. She looked at it, making a decision, then told him what to do. Holding the body around the waist with one arm, he was free to wrench the corpse's hand away, joints and bones cracking, the last ligaments stretching and snapping. He let the hand drop into the basin where it lay palm up, the fingers curled slightly, blood still seeping from the raw wound. A terrified secretary finds a severed finger in a lift. Not long after, a hand is found in a lift in another building. Is it the work of a crank? A medical student playing jokes? Then an entire arm is found in a lift, and the rest of the body stuffed in the boot of the victim's car. For Detective John Maiden, suddenly it's a murder case. As Maiden confronts the mounting horror of the crimes, he must also deal with the sinister politics within the police force itself. But then a young woman is kidnapped, her kidnapper boasting that he is responsible for the mutilations. Can Maiden find her before it's too late? ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Writing as G.M. Hague, Graeme is Australia's best-known local horror writer. He is the author of Ghost Beyond Earth, A Place to Fear, Voices of Evil and The Devil's Numbers. (All published by Pan Macmillan.) At the beginning of last year he moved from sunny north Queensland to Bunbury, WA. During the day he works part-time as a technician for the Bunbury Entertainment Centre. Graeme is also an accomplished rock and roll musician, and has had his own band. Trivia note: It was Graeme who 'discovered' Kim Wilkins (award-winning author of The Infernal). SELLING POINTS: ** Can't put-it-down psychological thriller. Pacey and full of action. ** Anyone who's ever felt nervous in a lift will relate to this - not because the lifts in the novel crash to the ground, but because of what is found in them. ** Set in Sydney, and ranges from corporate multi-storey office blocks in the CBD to seedy backstreets to the western suburbs. ** We've sold 3000 of the trade paperback -- not bad at all for Graeme's debut in that format. ** Great reviews from around the country and from a wide range of publications -- city, country and youth/street press: 'This absorbing thriller set in the corporate world of Sydney has everything necessary to keep you turning the pages: a serial killer on the loose, a cast of puzzled characters, a plot with lots of twists and unexpected turns.' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'Talk about a surprise ending. Sure, it's the crime genre, a serial killer is at large and the police hunt leads to a murderer. But you'll still be surprised. It's possible you'll surprise yourself by reading the ending again and again to see if you can glean a clue to the climax. It's dramatic, overwhelming and unexpected ... Hague is graphic in his descriptions of each murder ... It's gruesome and riveting ... But there's far more to Missing Pieces ... It's a good and clever book enriched by sparse writing, strong plot, seedy sexual descriptions and insights into the criminal and police minds. At times your stomach will turn, for the remainder you'll be riveted.' THE WEST AUSTRALIAN 'Don't believe the title -- Missing Pieces has all the ingredients for a successful blood-and-guts thriller. Author Graeme Hague i