Editions

Acts of the Assassins

Acts of the Assassins

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE

A charismatic cult leader is dead. One by one his followers are being assassinated. Enter Gallio.

Gallio does counter-insurgency. But the theft of a body he’s supposed to be guarding ruins his career. Years later, the file is reopened when a second body appears. Gallio is called back by headquarters and ordered to track down everyone involved the first time round. The only problem is they keep dying, in ever more grotesque and violent ways. How can Gallio stay ahead of the game when the game keeps changing?

Reviews

  • Brilliantly original and absurdly compelling ... it’s a book you’ll read in one, frantic gasp

    Guardian

  • Richard Beard is one of those rare writers whose novels are at once radically inventive and brilliantly entertaining. Acts of the Assassins … is as joyously original as it is a page-turner to read

    Tom Holland, Daily Mail

  • The Acts of the Assassins is…spectacularly successful. It is thoughtful and clever and brutal and true… It is a Chinese puzzle box of a novel. A garden of forking paths. A page-turner. A modern classic

    Benjamin Judge, Book Munch

  • Extraordinarily funny...confident and enchanting

    Guardian

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About the Author

Richard Beard

Richard Beard is the author of Acts of the Assassins which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and most recently, The Day That Went Missing. In the twenty years since his first book he has published critically acclaimed novels and narrative non-fiction, including Becoming Drusilla, the story of how a friendship between two men was changed by a gender transition. He was formerly director of the National Academy of Writing in London, and is now a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo and has a Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia. He is an optimistic opening batsman for the Authors Cricket Club.

Richard Beard

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Extracts

The Day That Went Missing by Richard Beard

The devastating memoir by Richard Beard that examines the day his brother drowned on a family holiday, a day that has been locked away until now...

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