A prosecutor fights a drug trafficker — and his own heroin addiction — in this thriller from a Dashiell Hammett Prize– and Arthur Ellis Award–winning author

“Deverell has a narrative style so lean that scenes and characters seem to explode on the page. He makes the evil of his plot breathtaking and his surprises like shattering glass.” — Philadelphia Bulletin

“Spell-binding, first-rate.” — Buffalo News

Lawyer Foster Cobb’s objective is to bring down the mysterious Dr. Au, responsible for the drugs that flow through Vancouver. But under the pressure of a disintegrating career and marriage, Cobb himself has taken up a long-abandoned heroin habit.

With a racing plot and dramatic twists, Needles plunges into a seedy 1970s underworld of crooked cops, Asian drug lords, and tense courtroom scenes. A winner of the Seal First Novel Award, it’s a riveting tale of crime and justice with “surprises like shattering glass,” from an author who has sold over a million copies (Philadelphia Bulletin).

William Deverell's profile page

William Deverell practised law for 15 years before taking up writing full-time. Of his time as a lawyer, he says, “Those were soul-destroying years. You end up playing the game. Truth doesn’t matter. Winning does.” Currently, he splits his time between Pender Island and Costa Rica, where he lives during our winter.

“Deverell has a narrative style so lean that scenes and characters seem to explode on the page. He makes the evil of his plot breathtaking and his surprises like shattering glass.” — Philadelphia Bulletin

“Spell-binding, first-rate. A brilliant craftsman.” — Buffalo News