Jake Arnott
the fatal tree
'This is a work of dazzling imagination and linguistic inventiveness' Alex Preston The Observer
Review: Uli Lenart – Attitude magazine
Drawing on historical figures, this is a seductive, cunning tale of crime, punishment and love among the thieves, prostitutes and charlatans of 1720's London. Laced with vibrant detail and deliciously evocative period language, Arnott's atmospheric novel is a Hogarth print come to life. It tells the tale of Jack Sheppard, apprentice-turned-house‐breakeer, and his lover, the notorious whore and pickpocket Edgworth Bess: the Bonnie and Clyde of their day. Together they dare to defy Jonathan Wild, the corrupt “thief-taker-general" who manipulates the criminal underworld like a puppeteer. From the condemned cell at Newgate prison, Bess gives her account of how she and Jack formed the most famous criminal partnership of the Georgian age and the price they pay — looming over all criminal life is the threat of the gallows, that long shadow of the fatal tree. Bess dictates her narrative to Billy Archer, a Grub Street hack and aspiring poet, who also inhabits that other underworld of molly houses and unnameable sin. With a cast of delightfully convincing characters and lines that are reminiscent of Dickens or Wilde. Arnott has triumphantly breathed life into history —and the result is glorious.
Review: Sarra Manning – Red Magazine
The Fatal Tree is set in the grimy underworld of 18th-century London known as Romeville and is the fictionalised story of notorious prostitute and pickpocket, Edgworth Bess – “a more deceitful and lascivious wretch is not known in England”. From her condemned cell in Newgate, she tells her tale of rags to riches, lovers taken and lovers betrayed, in such a vivid voice you can smell the slops and sawdust.
Review: Tatler
The author of the acclaimed Sixties-gangster novel The Long Firm resurrects the low life of an earlier era with panache. From her cell at Newgate, the notorious 18th‐century prostitute and pickpocket Edgworth Bess gives us her account of how she and her lover, the equally notorious thief Jack Sheppard, formed the most famous criminal partnership of their times. As her day of reckoning approaches, is there a way of escaping the gallows? Richly atmospheric.
Review: Spectator
"Thick as thieves in Georgian London" read more...
Review: The Guardian
"A colourful descent into London’s underworld" read more...
the house of rumour
'It may be the ideal holiday read for those who like to take their brains with them on vacation.' - Mark Lawson, Guardian
'Highly entertaining and perhaps even mind-expanding, Arnott's high-class conjuring act shows that truth really is stranger than fiction.' - Phil Baker, The Sunday Times
'A supremely intelligent book as well as a surprisingly warm one.' - Roz Kaveney, Independent
'Arnott offers a brightly coloured portrait of our times that is alternatively intimate and epic...The House of Rumour is a brilliant achievement that invites repeated readings.' - James Kidd, Independent on Sunday
'If this is that dark Prince Arnott's Jonbar Hinge, the future looks bright.' - Andrew Anthony, Observer
'A potent mix of fact and fiction that takes on 20th-century history but remains a page-turner.' - Elle
'The House of Rumour is a page-turner with exceptional style, depth, thought, camp, counter-history and intrigue. It's both sci-fi/fantasy pulp and an ambitiously epic work of cosmic proportions: a welcome paradox of a novel that boldly toys with the boundaries between high and low-brow art.' - Kirkus Review
'It isn't a book, it's a revelation.' - Geek Syndicate blog
the devil's paintbrush
'Brilliantly expansive and original' - Daily Mirror
'A consummate performance...a virtuoso work of near history, with the occasional in-joke thrown in for good measure...immensely enjoyable' - Guardian
'Arnott is clearly having fun here...So to combine that with how the necessity to be good - to be a hero - can be as suffocating a pressure as battling with occultist demons makes The Devil's Paintbrush a fine book' - Metro
'Arnott's great leap forward...This is a book about magick, personal tragedy, imperial war, the sexual drive, the nature of faith and where it can lead...Arnott tackles all this with a coolness of head and a strength of purpose.' - Herald
'One of the many pleasures of this skilful book is the maintenance of suspense as to whether in this iteration, with magic and drugs in the mix, of what we know to have happened, will happen...Arnott does not ask us to choose between [Crowley and Macdonald] - but much of the moral force of this excellent book lies in his demonstration that there is, nonetheless, a choice to be made.' - Independent
'A big departure for Arnott but a surprisingly successful one. It's a great read full of compassion, humour and riveting detail.' - Sunday Express
the long firm
'Truly fascinating ... Arnott's ability to powerfully resurrect an era is astonishing' - Jimmy Boyle, Guardian
'One of the smartest, funniest and original novels you will read all year ... Arnott is quite brilliant at excavating the cultural minutiae of the time to bring the period vividly to life' - Independent on Sunday
'Compulsive reading, powerful writing with an evocative feel for the bleaker side of the Swinging Sixties' - The Times
‘Gripping ... slumming it doesn’t get much better than this’ - Time Out
'Jake Arnott has created a gangster story every bit as cool, stylish and venomous as the London in which it is set, an English original as sharp and lethal as a Saville Row lapel' - Independent on Sunday
'Pulp Fiction so polished as to be immaculate' - New Statesman
'The powerful, stylish writing hooks the reader from the first page. One of the most impressive first novels I've read in years.' - Mail on Sunday
he kills coppers
'Brilliant ... you won't be able to put it down.' - Mark Sanderson, Sunday Telegraph Summer Reading
'Many thought that Jake Arnott's debut, 'The Long Firm', was good but not quite as good as the hype tried to convince us it was. Frankly, Hemingway, Hammett and Greene together would have been hard pressed to come up with anything that good. His eagerly awaited follow-up, 'He Kills Coppers', has arrived - and it's better.' - Time Out
'Compelling ... Arnott is a writer of many shades and, as in his debut, The Long Firm, shows his penchant for combining challenging storylines with strong storytelling.' - Max Davidson, Sunday Telegraph
'Intoxicating' - Scotland on Sunday
'Propels Arnott further into a league of his own' - Independent on Sunday
'Brilliant' - Literary Review
'Easily as good, if not better, than the superb Long Firm ... A stylish tour-de-force' - Big Issue
truecrime
'A rollercoaster journey through a landscape most honest, decent people wouldn't know existed . . . sparklingly witty, immensely profound . . . it should be read as a matter of urgency' - Erwin James, Guardian
'The most expansive, ironical and funny novel of the series' - David Isaacson, Daily Telegraph
'The popularity of Arnott’s work rests on his fluent, readable style and strong storytelling. While challenging the hype surrounding the genre, he avoids hypocrisy by stopping just short of glamorising his subject matter.' - New Statesman
'Arnott delivers a beacon-bright satire . . . a literary triumph' - Metro
'Arnott's satire is right on the money' - Observer
'Arnott's clever, style-conscious book is brutally authentic, yet at the same time ironically "knowing", with an almost satirical attitude to gangster entertainment and the cult of criminal celebrity. Its total readability consolidates his status as a blue-chip crime writer' - Sunday Times
'Arnott has a sharp sense of humour and a real concern for the consequences of crime on his characters and society.' - Daily Telegraph
'Arnott is both witty and gritty.' - Telegraph
johnny come home
‘Rich in the forensic detail that’s made Arnott the pop-culture laureate he is…breathless and compelling’ - Martin Horsfield, Time Out
‘Fascinating, compelling, pulpy – all you’d expect from a writer who just keeps getting better.’ - Arena
‘Bristling with contained energy and generating a white-hot unease. Best of all, the novel rescues the 1970s from the simple-minded dismissal of the entire decade as a kitsch-only zone…as Arnott argues with urgent, spellbinding power, it was a decade aflame rather than just flaming’ - Patrick Ness, Guardian
‘Beautifully observed and brilliantly paced…a fascinating portrait of impotence and amorality by a writer unafraid to take risks’ - Michael Arditti, Independent
‘Once again he has skewered an age to the page…funny, sexy, touching, too, but it is the undertow of dread beneath the antics that makes it a serious achievement’ - Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard
'Undoubtedly Arnott’s best invention to date.’ - Henry Sutton, Daily Mirror
'Compelling' - Peter Burton, Daily Express