A Killing Winter

Tom Callaghan made his name as a successful advertising executive and filmmaker. Now in A Killing Winter he has created an atmospheric thriller that deftly shines a harsh fluorescent glare on the pitiless work of being a homicide detective on the frozen, mean streets of the post-Soviet 'Stans.

In this neo-noir set in the mountainous Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, hard-bitten inspector Akyl Borubaev mourns the recent death of his beloved wife--the only humanizing force in his otherwise bleak life as a homicide detective in Bishkek. As he struggles to face his personal pain, Borubaev is assigned to investigate the murder of a young woman whose horribly mutilated body is found dumped in a public park in the dead of the forbidding Kyrgyz winter. When the pathologist informs Borubaev that the killer stuffed a fetus from another woman into the womb of the victim, the detective realizes he is hunting a psychopath. Then Borubaev discovers the woman is the only daughter of Mikhail Tekebayev, the powerful and ruthless Minister of State Security, and realizes the case will probably destroy him, regardless of where the evidence leads.
 
Borubaev begins making enemies everywhere he turns, even as he is aided by a motley assortment of dangerous cut-throats: his uncle Kursan, whose cross-border smuggling is the stuff of local legend; the explosive police chief, who wants the case solved as soon as possible; Saltanat, a beautiful and murderous agent of the Uzbek Security Service; an entire police force of bent cops; and members of the Kyrgyz mafia.
 
All of which would just be another day in the life of Akyl Borubaev—if the investigation didn't turn up a blood-chilling connection to multiple homicides in several nearby countries, including one on a military base in Russia.

Born in the north of England, Tom Callaghan received degrees in English Literature and Art History from Vassar College and the University of York, Tom joined Saatchi & Saatchi, spending 10 years as a Creative Group Head in London, New York and Philadelphia (where he helped establish a Saatchi office). His controversial film for Survival International, starring Richard Gere and banned from UK television, ran worldwide for many years. He joined the newly-formed M&C Saatchi as Creative Group Head for three years, before moving to the Far East to pursue interests outside advertising. He is a frequent contributor to Campaign, Communicate, Media Week and Rolling Stone. A Killing Winter is his first novel.