- Home
- Fiction
- Contemporary Fiction
- The Knives
The Knives
Richard T. Kelly returns to the broad canvas of his acclaimed debut Crusaders with a vividly detailed and dramatically powerful novel of our times.
3 in stock
Join Faber Members for 10% off your first order.
As Home Secretary, David Blaylock oversees the police, border control and the struggle against domestic terrorism.
Some say the job is impossible; Blaylock insists he is tough enough.
Constantly in his mind is the threat of an attack on Britain’s streets. But over the course of one autumn, Blaylock finds that the danger is much more personal . . .
A gripping read from start to finish. A rich, multi-layered account of the complexities of modern government where personal, political and cultural realities mean simple choices are hard to come by.
‘Around the time The Bodyguard got too ludicrous for words I thought: “how come nobody has adapted Richard T Kelly’s political thriller The Knives into the edge-of-your-seat Sunday night TV hit it demands to be?” Maybe because its hero is a Conservative home secretary dealing with the life-threatening consequences of piloting anti-terrorism legislation through parliament. More likely because he’s a believable individual rather than some devil man along the lines of Frank Underwood in House of Cards.’
The best novel about modern politics I have read in years.
Richard T. Kelly is the author of the novels, Crusaders (2008), The Possessions of Doctor Forrest (2011) and The Knives (2016). His fourth novel, The Black Eden, is published by Faber in 2023. His non-fiction publications include Alan Clarke (1998), Sean Penn: His Life and Times (2004), and Keegan & Dalglish (2017). Previously a senior editor for a number of…
Read MoreBrowse a selection of books we think you might also like, with genre matches and a few wildcards thrown in.
Faber author and Faber Academy tutor Richard T. Kelly shares a writing exercise for Faber Members.
Richard T. Kelly gives an insight into the research that went into his soulful, sweeping novel set against the backdrop …
The Black Eden is a powerful and soulful novel of five lives transformed forever by the discovery that changed 20th …