The takedown - Patrick Quinlan

A clever and original crime/thriller from the author of the highly acclaimed SMOKED.

Set in New York, the novel follows the adventures of ex-con Dick, who comes round from what feels like quite a bender to find that there's a corpse in the boot of his Oldsmobile. It's Dot, recently his boss on the Breakout Program and also his on/off girlfriend. That's bad enough, but Dick honestly doesnt know whether he shot her himself or whether someone else did it. Meanwhile Dot's friend Lydia is wondering what the hell has happened to her co-conspirator they've been embezzling the company and they're due to fly to Nassau with the proceeds shortly. And if Dick needed any more bad news, Dot's former squeeze, the very powerful, very clever, very dangerous Nestor Garcia, is headed for Manhattan, having decided he wants Dot back. He won't be at all happy to discover that the chances of a reconciliation are nil, unless necrophilia counts.

A brilliant cast of characters plus some shockingly violent action blended with dark humour make Patrick Quinlan's second novel an entirely satisfying follow-up to SMOKED.