Description:
Stella works miracles. Literally. She heals the sick and the paralysed, just like in the Bible. The Vatican is overjoyed--imagine, a real saint in the 21st century, and in Georgia, the heart of the American South. The only hitch? Her method: she heals the people she sleeps with in her motorhome. And she sleeps with a lot of people, it's what she does for a living. And that's precisely what's bothering the Vatican.
A saintly hooker isn't exactly presentable. A martyred saint, on the other hand, has a conveniently rewritten past. That's a job tailor-made for the Bronski twins--the best contract killers in the business. This is the book every UK thriller reader is talking about. A thriller laced with dark comedy, a road movie reminiscent of the Coen brothers, Tarantino and del Toro, but also a homage to the novels of Harry Crews. Stella is portrayed with compassion and grace. In many ways, this is a European writer's love letter to America.
Best New Thriller of the Month--Financial Times
" This freewheeling black comedy has a lot going for it, not least lapidary prose and a fizzy translation'--The Times
"Pulp Fiction vista of the bizarre, the deadly, the shrewd, and a variety of supposed purposes of life. Very much one to enjoy but also plenty to think about. --The Critic
"For me this is one of the best reads of 2026"--ELN Riveting Reviews
"This satirical thriller is funny, cheeky and bloody, but paradoxically, writing with compassion and hope, the author has created something bizarrely uplifting, a small masterpiece of positivity."---Morning Star
Brief description: Born in 1969, Joseph Incardona is a prolific novelist and writer of mixed Italian and Swiss origins. He lives in Geneva, Switzerland. He has written over fifteen novels across a range of genres and has also written for theatre and cinema. His work is both popular and critically acclaimed, having been honoured with numerous awards and adapted into film. Incardona's work has been translated into German, Italian, Korean and Georgian, but none of his books has yet been translated into English.
Review Quotes:
"Swiss author Joseph Incardona's hybrid chase-thriller-meets-satire is energetically translated from the French by Sam Taylor. Beyond the picaresque storyline, Incardona ensures that Stella has both agency and emotional intelligence. She poignantly records the details of each encounter in her notebook. "Because two bodies merging like that was never nothing, never insignificant, no matter what anyone says or thinks." Financial Times, Thrillers of the Month
"A glorious mash up of Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, centring on Stella- a young hooker who has the power to heal men's medical afflictions simply by doing the wild thing with them. When the Vatican gets wind of this miracle worker, she doesn't exactly fit their ideal for being canonised as a saint, so two blundering hitmen are employed to snuff her out. What follows is a madcap road journey as she goes on the run with a Jack Reacher-esque priest, pursued by the inept hitmen and others. It's all wonderfully bonkers, dark and dirty, and incredibly funny. Brilliant." Raven Crime Reads"Fine writing, fascinating asides, overlapping and interacting narratives, and a Pulp Fiction vista of the bizarre, the deadly, the shrewd, and a variety of supposed purposes of life. Very much one to enjoy but also plenty to think about. "--The Critic"Freewheeling black comedy has a lot going for it, not least lapidary prose and a fizzy translation, although the set-up is smarter than the pulpy execution, which rather runs out of steam. Even so, there's more to enjoy in this short Tarantinoesque fable than in most commercial thrillers twice its length."--The Times"Stuffed full of deeply dark humour and a high body-count, this smartly provocative and stylish crime novel about a miracle-worker prostitute on the run from assassins, is beautifully observed." ---Star Book of the Month, LoveReading"This satirical thriller is funny, cheeky and bloody, but it's also more surprising than that. By giving us the most cynical set-up imaginable, and then writing it paradoxically with compassion and hope, the Swiss author has created something bizarrely uplifting, a pleasure to read, and a small masterpiece of positivity."---Morning Star