Guess the title, win the book!

It’s a touch late, but it’s finally here! And here’s a little reminder of how it works:

We give you a few clues about the book we’re looking for.

Email us at competitions@orionbooks.co.uk with the subject line: Guess the Title. We will randomly pick five winners from the correct answers. You can email us as many guesses as you like but we will only count your correct answer once! Competition closes Thursday 23rd February 2012 at 2pm. For our full terms and conditions, look here.

And here we go . . .

# Your first clue is an extract (with a few key deletions) from the book itself!

“The cuts, inflicted by xxxxxxx and xxx, began on his forehead. A long wound ran from temple to temple, described with clinical precision. Blood ran down into his eyebrows and over his face. His nose had been sliced along its length and the cut continued down and through his top lip.

Xxxxxx’s cheeks each carried four ragged tears that ran from the side of his nose all the way to his ears, both of which had been bitten half away. And finally, his neck had been sliced from the tip of his chin all the way to the top of his shirt . . .

‘It’s a message,’ he said. ‘By morning everyone will know what has happened to him. Sooner or later, everyone will see him. The xxxxx know we can’t kill him, or leave him behind, and so every day he will be there, the most chilling reminder of what is waiting for us out here.’

‘They came all this way just to do that? Deliver that message?’

‘Oh no,’ said Xxxxx, ‘This was just a sideshow.’ ”

# The book we’re looking for today is (or was) published by Gollancz in trade format between the 22nd of August 2011 and the 22nd of August 2012.

Good luck!

. . . and keep an eye on the comments! We’ll be providing one or two additional clues, if you need them, as the day progresses . . .