From the author of the Booker-shortlisted Darkmans comes Burley Cross Postbox Theft, the latest title by acclaimed novelist Nicola Barker, and now an iPhone app! The quaint Yorkshire village of Burley Cross is far from serene, suffering as it does from persistent dog-fouling, life-threatening manhole cover theft and suspicious activities in the public lavatories. The crowning indignity, however, was the vandalising of the local postbox and the theft of the letters contained therein. PC Roger Topping, the reluctant sleuth, must piece together the recent happenings in the moorside village in order to identify the culprit, but as he does so he is drawn ever deeper into a world of petty local rivalries, curtain-twitching neighbours and dodgy sex magic.
For such a wonderfully eccentric book, we thought we’d do something a little special with the free version of the app. Not only does the app contain the first letter from the Burley Cross heist, with fully synchronised audio, but it will also serialise a further three letters through its in-built postbox during the week of its release. We will also be putting the audio versions of these letters on our podcast if you’d like to get a real flavour for some of the characters.
The book is already getting some great coverage, with the Times calling it ‘pure, unadulterated entertainment’ and the TLS revelling in the book’s ‘frenetic rhetoric’. If you’d like to hear Nicola talk about the book, UK residents can listen to her on the BBC’s Front Row programme (PC/Mac | mobile).
Head on over to the App Store to purchase the full version, or try out the sampler now for free.
