The Hidden Man (29 page)
Authors: Anthony Flacco
A
NTHONY
F
LACCO
is a 1990 graduate of the American Film Institute, where he won their Paramount Studios Award for Writing. Immediately upon leaving the A.F.I., he was hired as a feature screenwriter by the Walt Disney Studios. He later published his first of several books,
A Checklist for Murder
(Dell Books), in 1995. He has since done other books, including the internationally acclaimed
Tiny Dancer,
known in Italy as
La Danzatrice Bambina.
This is his second novel about Shane Nightingale and Randall Blackburn.
With its diabolically gripping fiction,
MORTALIS
delivers dangerously addictive top-drawer mysteries and thrillers.
THE SECRET PILGRIM
John le Carré
SISTER PELAGIA AND THE BLACK MONK
Boris Akunin
HAVANA BAY
Martin Cruz Smith
THE HIDDEN MAN
Anthony Flacco
Intelligent historical mysteries. International tales of intrigue.
Visit us on the Web at
www.mortalis-books.com
.
ALSO BY ANTHONY FLACCO
THE LAST NIGHTINGALE
TINY DANCER
A CHECKLIST FOR MURDER
Praise for
THE LAST NIGHTINGALE
“Every historical mystery tries to home in on the ideal setting at the perfect moment in time. Anthony Flacco succeeds on both counts in his first novel.”
—M
ARILYN
S
TASIO,
The New York Times Book Review
“Few literary depictions of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake match the intensity and visceral power of those in Flacco’s gripping first novel…. Dickens meets Hannibal Lecter. Brace yourself.”
—Booklist
“Screenwriter Flacco nicely evokes the aftermath of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake in his fiction debut.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Loaded with suspense.”
—Mysteries Galore
“A winning debut.”
—Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
“A marvelous page-turner of a thriller set against the fascinating aftermath of the great 1906 earthquake and fire.”
—J
AMES
D
ALESSANDRO
, author of
1906
“A fast-moving tale…. Where Flacco especially shines is his depiction of the two children, newly orphaned Shane Nightingale and the plucky girl who calls herself Vignette in order to give herself a more mysterious air…. It’s clearly deserving of a very wide audience.”
—S
ARAH
W
EINMAN
, author of
Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind
“From its opening pages—when we are plunged headlong into the terrifying chaos of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906—to its riveting climax,
The Last Nightingale
offers an abundance of those page-turning pleasures readers seek in historical thrillers.”
—H
AROLD
S
CHECHTER,
author of
The Devil’s Gentleman
“Atmospheric, chilling, and with more twists and turns than crooked Lombard Street,
The Last Nightingale
has it all. I couldn’t put it down.”
—C
ARA
B
LACK,
author of
Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis
“Set in a world on the edge of Armageddon, this gripping and completely original thriller that will raise the hair on the back of your neck.”
—W
ILLIAM
B
ERNHARDT
, author of
Capitol Conspiracy
and
Strip Search
The Hidden Man
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Original
Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Flacco
Dossier copyright © 2008 by Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
B
ALLANTINE
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
M
ORTALIS
and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The design on the title page features an incorporation of a photograph from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, courtesy of San Francisco Memories (
www.sanfranciscomemories.com
).
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Flacco, Anthony.
The hidden man: a novel of suspense / Anthony Flacco.
p. cm.
1. Police—California—San Francisco—Fiction. 2. Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915: San Francisco, Calif.)—Fiction. 3. San Francisco—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3606.L33H53 2008
813'.6—dc22 2008005202
eISBN: 978-0-345-50721-1
v3.0
