A noir melding of ancient Chinese folklore, organised crime and cutting edge medical technology.A policeman is murdered in San Francisco. And spends the rest of the novel hunting down the man who did it. And trying to get the answer to some terrifying questions. Why is he in another man's body? Why is someone trying to kill him. Again. And why is he being haunted by a nine tailed Albino fox?From the shell-shattered streets of Stalingrad in 1942 to the back allys of San Fransico's chinatown, evocative of place, crystal clear in its depiction of character this is literary fantastic fiction at its most compelling from one of the most exciting writers working today.
Industry Reviews
"An escapist romp on the wild side with literary ambitions that it goes a long way towards fulfilling. Imagine a script for the Outer Limits rewritten for the wide screen and you're not far off the mark. Compelling entertainment." -- Peter Millar THE TIMES "Literary, cleverly constructed, fast-moving and, maybe most importantly, a novel with real soul and warmth beneath its hipper-than-thou sheen. Even by his standards this is audacious - and brilliantly realised." SFX "A bizzarre, but appealing, mix of detective novel, gothic SF and Chinese mythology. Compellingly written and full of twists and turns." -- Dave Golder BBC Focus "Grimwood is an experienced and skilfull hand when it comes to making the impossible seem plausible, and above all he is a fine storyteller who makes you want to keep turning the pages of this original and entertaining novel." -- Susanna Yager SUNDAY TELEGRAPH "San Francisco cop Bobby Zha has a big problem - he's dead. Reincarnated in another man's body, Bobby sets out to solve his own murder; and like TV's Lost, the more we learn about his previous life, the more intriguing and gripping it gets. Part sexy love story, part hard-edged crime thriller, this is a brilliant and original page-turner." Cosmopoiltan "Teases us constantly about what genre it belongs to. Grimwood is always ingenious and here he moves into the entertainingly wilfull." -- Roz Kaveney TIME OUT "Jon Courtenay Grimwood has a knack of pulling readers into his worlds. You should all go add it to your bookshelves." 5/5 -- Heather Worthy Starburst "Fusing modern crime noir, with science fiction and a soupcon of Chinese mythology, Jon Courtenay Grimwood drags us headlong into the seedy world of Bobby Zha. There is much to enjoy here, in particular Grimwood's descriptive prose. Grimwood invests his hero with enough emotional layers to take on a life of his own." -- Christopher Prince DREAMWATCH "This futuristic thriller is a great read." CRIME CONFIDENTIAL "'Is the book SF or fantasy? Who cares. It's good!" -- Charles Brown LOCUS "'Whether they shelve this with mysteries, with horror, with his other SF novels or with the literary likes of David Mitchell, comb the shelves and seek it out." -- Rick Kleffel TRASHOTRON "There are no pulled punches in 9tail Fox. Grimwood has all the grittiness and local color of Richard Paul Russo's excellent Carlucci series, but with the SF content toned down enough to sell to a much wider market. This book might just break him as big as Richard Morgan, movie deal included." -- Cheryl Morgan EMERALD CITY "It's a mark of the flexibility of the term sci-fi that it can be used to encompass the work of Jon Courtenay Grimwood.Neither science or even technology are foundational to his writing. Instead, it's the gritty underworld of cop noir mixed with conspiracy theories concerning spooks whose existence is never officially confirmed which make his bedfellows: well, it's the case with 9Tail Fox, A San Franciso-set ressurection-whydunnit with some eastern mysticism thrown in for good measure." EDGE "Among Grimwood's novels Fox is surely the one that most loudly demands to be filmed. Fox is a tremendous read, which seemed to pass in no time at all. Grimwood just keeps working his way up my list of favourite authors." -- John Toon INFINITY PLUS 'Grimwood's is a distinct imagination, and his muscular, lucid and polished prose brings it beautifully to the page.' Daily Telegraph
