Most Popular Books by William Bayer

"He spent hours drawing sketches of how she might be killed. And the more work he put into them the more exciting the idea became. And then he started following her and then he was caught up. And the more caught up he was the more definitely she was doomed, for once an idea took hold in him he felt compelled to carry it out. It was the Switch that made his crime a work of art... " At first the two killings seem unrelated. The lonely call girl murdered on New York City''s West Side had never met the prim schoolteacher slain across town in the far safer preserve of the city''s Upper East Side. But someone has decapitated them both and switched their heads: a deed that is apparently its own motive, a crime as pointless as it was perfectly executed. Detective Frank Janek immediately knows that he has entered the realm of a lethal madness. Middle-aged, divorced, a man centered solely on his work, Janek is practiced in piercing the minds of the criminals he pursues. In the absence of clues from the killer, he has only the awful symmetry of the crime to work with, only his own finely honed intuition. "This was a crime conceived in the shadows," he thinks, "There was precision in it, and passion. Concentrated rage and a love of order. A need to beautify. Even some strange, unfathomable, as yet uncatalogued species of love." The challenge—to become as precise, as creative, as cold as his prey-begins to take its toll. The tenuous psychological thread leads Janek back into the unsettled past—not only the killer''s but his own. His own passion and rage and unresolved love. The love he bore for the man who trained him-a retired cop whose apparent suicide he has shied from investigating too closely, the passion for justice that has made him a marked man within the police fraternity. The rage he feels at ancient crimes that have finally burst into full and terrifying flower. And most of all, the new love he feels for the mysterious woman in whom all these strands of the past seem to converge. It is Janek''s love for Caroline that leads him at last to a blinding vision of the purpose behind the grisly double homicide. Too late, he realizes that the case of "Switched Heads" may only be the bait.... Praise for Switch: I am very impressed. Switch is superior in characterization, movement, tension, the quality of the writing and the a mind of the writer. William Bayer goes right on my "look for list" —John D. MacDonald "The crime is dazzling, the action fast paced, and there are good insights into police techniques and the police mind." —Robert Daley "Switch is a novel in which the grit and madness of New York are palpable. As well as engrossing the reader utterly, it does high honor to the grand tradition of the American psychological thriller, and despite the riveting nature of its central act of horror, it also traces an exhilarating love affair between two bloodied but triumphantly humane survivors of the city''s attrition." —Thomas Keneally "Switch has the stunning intensity of The First Deadly Sin, and I can''t think of a higher compliment." —Mary Higgins Clark

Circling high over Rockefeller Center is a peregrine falcon, the most awesome of the flying predators. She awaits a signal from her falconer. It is given: the bird attacks, plummeting from the sky at nearly 200 miles an hour, striking a young woman and killing her instantly. So begins Peregrine, a chilling tale of obsession. By chance, newscaster Pamela Barrett witnesses the slaying. Her impassioned account of it on television that evening thrills the falconer, a brilliant madman who identifies with his deadly bird. He becomes fascinated with Pam and enmeshes her in a bizarre and deadly scheme even as she finds herself drawn to him by an erotic need she doesn''t understand. As killing follows killing, the police and the media engage in cutthroat competition to find the murderer. Two falcons fight to the death above Central Park. Call girls, rich eccentrics, dealers in the black market for rare birds--all play their roles in this study of secret passion, desire, fulfillment, and ecstasy.

"One hot summer afternoon a quarter century ago, a wealthy socialite and her young lover, a private-school teacher, were gunned down in a cheap motel room on the outskirts of the Midwestern city of Calista. Now, forensic sketch artist David Weiss has returned to his hometown to cover a routine celebrity murder trial for ABC."--Jacket.

(Limelight). "A hip compendium of cinema savvy ... perhaps the most practical battle manual available to the young filmmaker." Newsweek

Geoffrey Barnett is a burned-out news photographer afraid to shoot a naked face. Kimberly Yates is a gorgeous young actress willing to bare her body. Soon after he learns to believe in the healing power of her love, she vanishes. Geoffrey''s obsessive search for the woman he loves leads him from Manhattan''s Soho to steamy, seedy Key West.

In this multi-layered psychological mystery, photographer Jason Poe is transfixed by a disturbing set of murals he encounters in the attic of an abandoned house, and resolves to uncover the secret behind them. "The murals hit me hard. First came terror, then awe. It was only after I’d taken them in that I began to feel their immense power." Jason Poe, a former war photographer, has been breaking into abandoned houses for an art project to document what previous tenants have left behind. One night he finds more than expected when he ascends to an attic and is confronted by a haunting set of murals. The murals cover all four walls of the cramped space and hypnotise Jason. Convinced there’s an important story behind them, he embarks upon a quest to identify their creator and uncover their meaning. To do so Jason recruits several friends, including Joan Nguyen, a reporter for Calista Times-Dispatch. As the team delve deeper they uncover a mystery involving accusations of satanism, police corruption, a scandal involving a wealthy Calista family, a series of contemporary arson attacks . . . and an enigmatic patient in a Swiss psychiatric clinic.

An infamous nineteenth-century photograph is the key to a modern murder mystery in this “clever psychological thriller” from the Edgar Award winner (Library Journal, starred review). In 1882, the young Lou Andreas-Salomé—writer, psychoanalyst and femme fatale—appears with Friedrich Nietzsche and another man in a bizarre photograph taken in Luzern, Switzerland. Over thirty years later, an art student in Freud’s Vienna presents Lou Salomé with his own drawing based on the infamous photograph. In present-day California, performance artist Tess Berenson learns that the previous occupant of her downtown Oakland loft was a professional dominatrix named Chantal—who apparently left in a hurry. Instantly fascinated, Tess’s curiosity only intensifies when Chantal’s body is discovered in the trunk of a stolen car at Oakland airport. Embarking on an obsessive investigation, Tess discovers a link between Chantal and the original Luzern photograph. But as she gets closer to the shocking truth, Tess finds that she too is in jeopardy . . . “Edgar winner Bayer continues his romance with psychoanalysis with a riff on Lou Andreas-Salomé’s persona as analyst and femme fatale . . . Nazis, sadomasochism, and psychoanalysis always provide a heady mix, and a little murder thrown in pushes Bayer’s latest into the radioactive zone.” —Kirkus Reviews “Bayer chillingly and skillfully depicts the divide between good and evil. Suggest to Thomas Harris and Michael Connelly devotees.”—Library Journal (starred review) “[A] crafty whodunit . . . Bayer keeps the suspense high as he artfully toggles among story lines and thoughtfully develops his characters” —Publishers Weekly

Tangier, a sweeping novel of romance and intrigue set in a fabled North African resort, may remind readers of the Alexandria Quartet. In this book Tangier is more than just a place; it is a city of unholy loves. Titled Europeans, Moroccan hustlers, aging former Nazis, decadents of every sort play out their rituals, competing for stunning lovers and social power. Their schemes and passions are a subject of fascination to the hero of the book, a brilliant young police inspector. But even as he is fascinated he is also repelled, searching always to understand the privileged foreign colony, to unravel its weave of secrets. He finds the key, finally, in the person of a beautiful Eurasian woman, whose own mysterious past he manages to unveil. Through her eyes he comes to see Tangier in a new way. Sustained by her love he rediscovers the city and finds a different role in it for himself. Against the drama of this love story other characters emerge: An America Consul becomes embroiled in an affair with his Vice-Consul''s wife. A retired British character actor strives to preserve his dignity as his friends betray him and he feels an intimation of his death. A Canadian gossip columnist struggles not to lose himself in the gay world of Tangier. There is a young Frenchman corrupted by his love for an older woman; a radical Arab surgeon; a fifth-rate Soviet spy-a "burnt-out case"; squabbling writers; cruel social arbiters; a male prostitute named "Pumpkin Pie". Watched closely by the police inspector as they slip in and out of each others'' lives, these and other characters ignore the storm that gathers slowly above their town. In the end it sweeps them up with dizzying force. Tangier is revealed in a violent and dazzling finale.

Frank Janek, the unforgettable detective from the bestselling Switch, returns in a brilliant, shocking thriller. To capture a killer possessed by the most extreme sexual obsessions, Janek must try to think like a twisted murderer. And since the creep murdered Janek''s beloved goddaughter, Janek''s interest is entirely personal.

Seemingly random victims are being brutally murdered, their bodies mutilated with strange markings. Yet David Bar-Lev, chief of the Pattern Crimes unit of Jerusalem''s police, searches for a pattern to these acts. To his amazement, he discovers that the murders are merely part of an even larger and infinitely more shocking pattern.

Joel Barley, jeune artiste prometteur, tombe amoureux de Liv Anders, danseuse et tisserande. « Ce qui ne peut être dit doit être dansé. Ce qui ne peut être dansé doit être tissé. Et ce qui ne peut être tissé doit être imprimé dans la chair » : l’étrange mantra de Liv intrigue Joel ; de même lorsqu’elle affirme « dissimuler sa douleur dans ses tissages ». Lorsque Liv est tuée, il apparaît qu’elle avait bien dissimulé quelque chose dans l’une de ses compositions abstraites, et Joel, aidé de ses deux amis Justin et Kate, veut découvrir quoi.

Tess Berenson, jeune artiste performeuse, emménage dans un vaste loft d''Oakland en Californie. Elle s''aperçoit que la locataire précédente, Chantal Desforges, a laissé certaines traces singulières; une croix de Saint André en métal ainsi qu''une sorte de cellule fermée par une grille. Chantal était une dominatrice qui recevait des clients particuliers. Il semble qu''elle ait dû quitter le loft précipitamment. On ne tarde pas à retrouver son cadavre...

New York Times best-selling crime fiction writer William Bayer breaks new ground with this novel, a coming-of-age/psychological mystery. Hiding in the Weave, written from the perspective of eighteen-year-old Joel Barlev, a senior at Delamere, a school geared to talented young artists, plays off themes typically found in classic boarding school novels-requited and unrequited romantic relationships, alienation, rebellion, sexuality, troubled home lives, moral dilemmas, epiphanies and acquiring maturity. But there is more here. . . much more . . . . "What cannot be spoken shall be danced. What cannot be danced shall be woven. And what cannot be woven shall be marked upon the flesh." That''s the strange mantra of Liv Anders, a gifted dancer and weaver at Delamere. Joel, an equally gifted ceramic artist, finds himself falling in love with her, intrigued by her ethereal beauty as well as by her casual comment regarding their different art forms: "You gouge your pots to show your pain to the world. I hide my pain in the weave." It turns out there is something hidden in one of Liv''s abstract weavings, and when tragedy strikes, Joel and his two best friends, Justin and Kate, feel compelled to uncover it. The novel follows the four from the start of their senior year at Delamere through graduation and a little beyond. Hiding in the Weave is a novel for adults about the strivings of youth. . . love, passion, art, art-making, growing up and letting go. It takes the traditional coming-of-age boarding school novel into fascinating new territory.

A psychological thriller set in one of the world''s most fascinating cities. The destinies of four main characters, each pursuing his/her own agenda, intersect in Buenos Aires.

In 1903, a tall woman with flashing Tartar eyes was the talk of military circles, newspaper offices and salons. Her name was Isabelle Eberhardt, and the life she actually led made her justifiably the object of the most scandalous gossip in Paris as well as in North Africa. This compelling novel, a fictionalized biography, tells her story––the story of a brave, self-destructive and sensual being with an irrepressible rage to live. Isabelle came to Tunis when she was 17, longing for fame as an author and discovering that her life could be the inspiration for her art. She converted to Islam and dressed as a man chiefly because it allowed her to wander freely and taste the delicacies of a forbidden existence. Her brief life encompassed an enormous range of experience. She joined a mystic religious sect and was nearly assassinated because of it, went to trial over the scandal and was forced to leave the country. She followed the French army into the Sahara as a journalist, insulted the great and the famous, spent sleepless nights in rapturous mystical prayer. When she died, at the age of 27, she was reputed to have slept with most of the Foreign Legion. Isabelle''s goal was to rediscover herself through her excesses, her fears and her joys, so that perhaps one day she might rend the veil which hid from her the secrets of eternity. This fascinating novel about her life proves admirably that the best of Isabelle Eberhardt lay in her energy and determination to dive into the midst of maelstrom and ride out the fury of her existence.

Punish Me with Kisses is the story of two sisters and the Mysterious Dark Man to whom both are helplessly drawn. It begins in Bar Harbor, Maine, summer playground of the rich. Shy and sensitive Penny Berring watches as her beautiful sister Suzie puts on a bizarre display––flaunting her transgressions beneath her parent''s windows. Her behavior is bizarre, and compelling, and then... a scream in the night, Suzie is murdered. There is a sensational inconclusive trial. And an enigma: What really happened? Who killed Suzie, and why? Three years pass. Penny is now living a quiet life in New York. Then it all starts again. She finds Suzie''s secret diary. It propels her on a strange, surreal odyssey of her own and on toward a horrifying secret.

Cap se consacre à la traque des satanistes. Un jour, après l''une de ses conférences, un jeune policier lui soumet un cas susceptible de l''intéresser. Dans une église de campagne isolée, fréquentée par une petite communauté noire, le pasteur a découvert un homme nu, de race blanche, suspendu par un pied à la traverse de la grande croix de bois dressée derrière l''autel. Sur le dallage, un pentacle a été tracé avec le sang de la victime. Ce signe bien particulier ramène Cap dix ans en arrière, au meurtre de sa propre fille. Les assassins n''ont jamais été arrêtés, mais Cap croit retrouver leur signature dans ce crime mis en scène comme une figure du tarot. Par l''auteur du Rêve des chevaux brisés, qui possède lui-même plus de quatre cents jeux de tarot.

Silvia santini, prostituée de haut vol, a été retrouvée adossée au mur du cimetière d''un quartier populaire de Buenos Aires, les mains attachées dans le dos et reliées à un nœud coulant passé autour de son cou ; la première page d''un journal militant contre la corruption politique a été enfoncée dans sa gorge. Chargée de l''enquête, l''officier de police fédérale Marta Abecasis constate que la scène du crime a été complètement sabotée par la commissaire du quartier, Liliana Mendez. Délibérément ? La victime avait un souteneur yougoslave nommé Ivo Granic. Mais ce dernier a également été assassiné, et son corps présente les mêmes blessures que celui de Silvia Santini. Pour Marta, cela rappelle étonnamment les méthodes des tortionnaires de l''armée, à la sombre époque du " processus de réorganisation nationale ", quand les opposants étaient des disparus ". Fasciné par le tango, William Bayer a choisi de situer la ville des couteaux à Buenos Aires, métropole mythique et lourde d''un passé aussi riche que cruel. Son histoire est à l''image de la ville : peuplée de personnages troubles, foisonnante et pleine de faux-semblants : en un mot, envoûtante.

Un scoop terrible ! Pour Pam, présentatrice de télévision ambitieuse, c''est enfin le coup de chance. Une menace terrifiante plane dans le ciel de New York et passionne les foules. Devenue vedette, Pam est entraînée vers les sommets avant d''être précipitée dans un gouffre cauchemardesque, où elle laisse des plumes... Encore, si ce n''était que ça.

Sensuel, ambigu, magnétique, dans la lignée du Rêve des chevaux brisésC’est un drôle de spectacle auquel assiste Penny chaque jour de cet été passé à Bar Harbor, dans la maison familiale. Sa sœur Suzie enchaîne les conquêtes d’un soir, multiplie les provocations et semble s’amuser à exposer sa débauche aux yeux de tous, surtout de ses parents. Une nuit, les gémissements de plaisir qui s’échappent du bungalow investi par Suzie et ses amants laissent place à l’horreur : elle est assassinée sous les yeux de sa petite sœur qui a pris pour habitude de l’espionner depuis la fenêtre de sa chambre.Trois ans plus tard, Penny est à New York. L’identité du meurtrier n’a jamais été révélée et la vie suit son cours jusqu’à ce que le passé rattrape Penny : elle retrouve le journal intime de Suzie. Le fait de revivre ainsi la vie de sa sœur pourrait-il la mener au tueur ? Les interrogations laissent rapidement place à l’obsession: Penny doit devenir sa sœur, au présent.Comme dans Le rêve des chevaux brisés, William Bayer excelle à parcourir les méandres du psychisme humain, à explorer les processus d’identification et de manipulation. C’est avec une étonnante intuition qu’il expose ambiguïtés et perversions dans un roman profondément original, où le lecteur est happé par un récit que rythment les contradictions du personnage principal jusqu’au retournement de situation final, et sa terrible réalité : le pire est toujours possible.Né en 1939 à Cleveland, William Bayer a travaillé pour le département d’Etat américain dans les années soixante. Il est l’auteur de nombreux romans, souvent noirs, dont Pèlerin récompensé par l’Edgar des Mystery Writers of America.