<B>A brilliant crime novel and prequel to the acclaimed BBC series by the show’s creator and sole writer, hailed by <I>The Guardian</I> as “Britain’s own Stephen King.”</B><P>Meet Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. He’s a murder detective with an extraordinary case clearance rate. He’s obsessive, instinctive, and intense. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. And yet there are rumors that Luther is bad—not corrupt, but tormented. After years of chasing the most depraved criminals in London’s gritty underworld, he seethes with a hidden fury he can barely control, making him do things any other detective wouldn’t and shouldn’t do.<P> <P><I>Luther: The Calling</I> is the story of the serial killer case that tore Luther’s personal and professional relationships apart and propelled him over the precipice—beyond fury, beyond vengeance, all the way to the other side of the law.<P> <P>Is Luther a force for good or a man hell-bent on self-destruction? Edgar Award–winning writer Neil Cross has created one of the most compelling characters in modern crime fiction: “Luther, who is intelligent and almost freakishly intuitive, belongs not only to the Sherlock Holmes tradition but also to the newer crime-fiction model elaborated by Thomas Harris in his novels <I>Red Dragon</I>, <I>The Silence of the Lambs</I>, and <I>Hannibal</I>” (<I>The New York Times</I>). For fans of the award-winning series starring Emmy-award nominee Idris Elba and for all lovers of fiction, <I>Luther: The Calling</I> is a compelling, compulsively readable novel. <I></I>