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Ragged Alice Kindle Edition

by Gareth L. Powell (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 199 ratings
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Nominated for the British Science Fiction Award 2020

In Gareth L. Powell's Ragged Alice a detective in a small Welsh town can literally see the evil in people's souls.

Orphaned at an early age, DCI Holly Craig grew up in the small Welsh coastal town of Pontyrhudd. As soon as she was old enough, she ran away to London and joined the police. Now, fifteen years later, she’s back in her old hometown to investigate what seems at first to be a simple hit-and-run, but which soon escalates into something far deadlier and unexpectedly personal—something that will take all of her peculiar talents to solve.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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  1. Print length
    204 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Tordotcom
  5. Publication date
    April 23, 2019
  6. File size
    3801 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

GARETH L. POWELL writes science fiction about extraordinary characters wrestling with the question of what it means to be human. He has won the BSFA Award twice, for Ack-Ack Macaque and Embers of War, and has also been a finalist for the Locus Award. He lives in Bristol, UK with his children.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07HF2Q1CV
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tordotcom (April 23, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 23, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3801 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 204 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 199 ratings

About the author

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Gareth L. Powell

Gareth L. Powell

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Gareth L. Powell is the award-winning author of 20 published books. He is best known for The Embers of War trilogy, The Continuance Series, The Ack-Ack Macaque trilogy, Light Chaser (written with Peter F. Hamilton), and About Writing, his guide for aspiring authors. He has twice won the prestigious British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel (previous winners include J. G. Ballard and Arthur C. Clarke) and has become one of the most shortlisted authors in the award’s 50-year history. He has also been shortlisted for the Locus Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Seiun Award, and the Canopus Award.

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
199 global ratings
A great book to escape into
5 Stars
A great book to escape into
Respectful and thoughtful story with developed characters, I hope to meet again in a sequel. It was the perfect way to while away a Sunday morning. Highly recommend, with a pot of coffee or tea.
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Top reviews from the United States

Patricia Anderson
5.0 out of 5 stars My first Gareth L Powell book
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2019
Verified Purchase
I've been following Gareth on Twitter and I like what he puts there, so I decided I should read a book he's written. I get my books on Kindle and I'm cheap. Ragged Alice was the least expensive, so I grabbed it. I like a good English mystery (Welsh, in this case, but still acceptable). This one did not disappoint. A good mystery, difficult for the main character DCI Holly Craig to solve. And kind of a ghost story, also good. The thing I liked best about Ragged Alice was the way Gareth stands just to the left of the usual way reality is perceived. Normal things are normal, but not quite. And the way he uses language to convey setting is simply delicious. This book is a lovely morsel. Indulge.
2 people found this helpful
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Amber
4.0 out of 5 stars More please
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2019
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I really enjoyed riding along with Holly Craig, but what I REALLY want is to ride along for whatever she decides to do next, with the new circumstances she's in by the end of this tale. It felt like we were just getting started, so I hope this was just our introduction to DCI Craig.
2 people found this helpful
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E. Colgan
3.0 out of 5 stars solid, spooky mystery
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2019
a longer story might have given more of a chance to get to know Holly better, but i liked the story and its conclusion and would definitely be down to read another in the series.
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Anne Waldon
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book to escape into
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2020
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Respectful and thoughtful story with developed characters, I hope to meet again in a sequel. It was the perfect way to while away a Sunday morning. Highly recommend, with a pot of coffee or tea.
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Anne Waldon
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book to escape into
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2020
Respectful and thoughtful story with developed characters, I hope to meet again in a sequel. It was the perfect way to while away a Sunday morning. Highly recommend, with a pot of coffee or tea.
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KH Rose
4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging...
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2019
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...mystery, with a lovely blending of the supernatural and the secrets lying beneath the seeming calm of a small town.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious talents well told...
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2019
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Great characters and a strange plot to work with.

Some of the mysteries aren't revealed, others are key to the solution of the main strange mystery.
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K. Wallace
4.0 out of 5 stars For Fans of King and Koontz!
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2019
Wow! I was delightedly surprised by this book. On the surface it may seem like the usual “damaged detective returns to hometown and face old secrets” thing. But it’s so much more interesting than that.

Detective Holly Craig is wonderfully witty, gritty and likable. Though her gift of literal soul-searching is supernatural and there are other such elements, it never seemed like a paranormal story and I mean that in the best of all possible ways. Her gift adds an interesting edge to the narrative without consuming it. She could be Koontz’s Odd Thomas’ older sister.

Plot-wise, Ragged Alice is a fast paced and intriguing gothic mystery. It reminds me of Harry Bingham’s Fiona Griffiths series in the novelty of its set up.

Every character hints at having their own fascinating back story. The waitress with the false eye?! Mrs. Phillips and her Miss Havisham-like wardrobe? The LSD addled old copper? I want to know more, more, More! Each of these folks could easily carry his or her own book ( just a suggestion). You will not regret spending time in Pontyrhudd village. It’s like a Welsh version of one of Stephen King’s creepy small towns.

I liked the ending. Did not see it coming and appreciated both it’s humor and it’s weirdness. My only complaint is I NEED to know what happens to Holly and friends next?!? ( hence only four stars). It is a particular kind of cruelty to leave the reader so ravenous.

Please, please Mr. Powell, May we have some more? Soon?
One person found this helpful
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Renee Lee
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Spooky Tale That Needs A Sequel
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2022
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I love this story, it's MC, and the world it's set in. I won't give anything away by breaking down the plot, but I love a good old fashioned ghost story/murder mystery. I could envision this as the first book in a series that I would be completely obsessed with.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Florence
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic story.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 23, 2020
Verified Purchase
Really glad I picked this book up, it was read in one go as I just kept wanting ‘one more chapter.’ Completely immersive, the descriptions of Wales were beautifully evocative. I could feel the clinging damp and sea sprayed wind. I wanted to be there as I read it.
A lovely little gem of a story, very satisfying and I loved the characters (especially Mrs Phillips). If you are hesitating, don’t, just buy the book. You won’t regret it.
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S. Meade-Newman
4.0 out of 5 stars A good read
Reviewed in Spain on April 23, 2019
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Well paced, gripping, impeccably written. The ending surprised me and I'm still in two minds about that, but I really enjoyed the book as a whole. I hope it will be the first in a long series.
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alphabeta
5.0 out of 5 stars Confident, assured, engaging
Reviewed in Australia on May 21, 2020
Verified Purchase
Gareth Powell just keeps getting better.

I really liked the Trouble Dog trilogy, but something about this slightly supernatural mystery exceeded that for me.

Confident crisp vivid prose, colourful characters, interesting story, just not long enough!
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Mike
4.0 out of 5 stars trope-twisting police procedural with a supernatural edge, a distinctive Welsh flavour
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 5, 2019
Verified Purchase
Ragged Alice is a smooth blend of police procedural and supernatural thriller with an authentic Welsh setting and lyrical descriptions.

I consumed the 202 pages of "Ragged Alice" in a single sitting, partly because I needed to know where Gareth Powell would take the story and partly because I was beguiled by the language.

"Ragged Alice" is the start of a new series featuring DCI Holly Craig, No, don't groan and say "not another one?" True she's a police officer who drinks too much and has poor social skills but trust me, she's not the typical Brit cop. She has an ability (you might call it a gift, she often calls ita curse held at bay only by whisky) to look into a person's eyes and know how far they've been eroded by guilt, shame and dissolution.

She's returned to her native Wales fifteen years after escaping it with the intention never to return and immediately finds herself investigating a murder in the small seaside town she grew up.

This is a short, fast-moving story, where the body count seems to rise with every tide, the violence is graphic and the spirits of the dead are always with those who have the eyes to see them.

One of the joys of the book for me was the wonderful language used to describe the place and its people. One chapter starts with a single sentence evoking a rainy day in Wales in a way that reminded me of Dylan Thomas:

RAIN FELL ACROSS THE bracken-brown hills like a biblical punishment. It dripped from the town’s slick slate roofs, overflowed the gutters and ran in gurgling torrents down the steep-sided streets.

The story features, Mrs Phillips, a flamboyant woman in her nineties who makes an immediate impression. Here's how her first meeting with DCI Craig is described:

An old woman waited on the hotel steps. She wore a man’s white tuxedo jacket over a lilac ball gown and was smoking a cigarette.

'Are you the detective, love?”

Holly paused. The old girl must have been « ninety if she was a day. Her hands looked like sausage skins filled with walnuts. She leant her weight on a silver-topped cane and had slicked back her silver hair with fragrant pomade.

Isn't that a wonderful way to describe hands?

Later, when Holly Craig thinks back on Mrs Phillips, she describes her to herself as:

the living personification of the Victorian buildings on the seafront—their facades once proud and enthusiastic but now washed out, half-forgotten and clinging to past glories, their lungs ravaged by years of smoke, black mould and neglect.

I admire the aptness and exuberance of that.

I also like the small but telling ways in which life in a small town in Wales was evoked, for example, when DCI Craig is surprised that Mrs Phillips knows of something that happened only a few hours ago, the irrepressible old woman says:

“Oh, you know what this place is like, love. If you lose your virginity at lunchtime, someone will have found it and brought it home to your mam in time for tea.”

I recommend "Ragged Alice" if you're in the mood for a trope-twisting police procedural with a supernatural edge, a distinctive Welsh flavour and language that makes you go "I wish I'd written that".
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E. J. Dawson
4.0 out of 5 stars Captivating Characters
Reviewed in Australia on May 11, 2019
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One of the things I love most about reading Gareth Powell's characters is how he writes female strengths and weaknesses. I was captivated by Holly and her demons, something about the rough edged detective and her thought processes kept me turning the pages of this book, I devoured it in less than two hours. It was aided by an intriguing and twisted plot, as well as Holly's offsiders made it a fantastically engaging read. My only disappointment lay in the final ending, which I felt could have been longer. The small Welsh town has such beautiful scene and detail that it was easy to imagine myself there, and wanted so very badly for some of those final clues to tie into something greater. If Gareth Powell is going to turn this into a series of novellas with detective Holly, that would thrill me down to my toes!
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