The Drop

'Geordie Cartwright has disappeared, along with Bobby Mahoney's money. I have to find him and fast, or it's going to be my face staring into the business end of a nail gun.' David Blake is no gangster, or so he likes to think. He's a white-collar criminal, working for boss Bobby Mahoney, enjoying the good life while the money pours in. Trouble is, a big chunk of that money has gone missing, along with Geordie Cartwright, and Blake is getting the blame.

Has Geordie fled with The Drop or has he been killed by rivals? As Blake dives into the Newcastle underworld, a seedy, violent place filled with dodgy clubs, pubs, strip joints and brothels, he starts to uncover the truth; there's a rat in Bobby's crew and someone else is planning a take-over. Meanwhile the police are closing in on Bobby. It's just a matter of time before he's nicked for good. Blake must uncover the truth before it's too late for them all.

If that were not enough, he has to choose between his girlfriend, the beautiful lawyer Laura, and the irresistible Sarah, his boss's gorgeous daughter. Sarah might just be the most dangerous person in his life right now, if Bobby finds out.

In a desperate and bloody finale, Blake has to make an agonising choice and someone pays the ultimate price in The Drop.



Howard Linskey is the author of five novels published by No Exit Press, including the David Blake crime series, The Drop, The Damage and The Dead. Harry Potter producer, David Barron optioned a TV adaptation of The Drop, which was voted one of the Top Five Thrillers of the Year by The Times. The Damage was voted one of The Times' Top Summer Reads. He is also the author of two books set during WW2. Hunting the Hangman, is a historical thriller about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague during WW2. His new novel Ungentlemanly Warfare features SOE agents Harry Walsh and Emma Stirling, as well as American OSS agent Sam Cooper. Howard is also the author of four books published by Penguin; including No Name Lane, Behind Dead Eyes, The Search and The Chosen Ones in a crime series set inthe north east of England, featuring DS Ian Bradshaw, with investigative journalists Tom Carney and Helen Norton. Originally from Ferryhill in County Durham, he now lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Alison and daughter Erin.



'Linskey delivers a flawless feel for time and place, snappy down to earth dialect dialogue mixed in with unrelenting violence and pace. A Tyneside Dashiell Hammett to put Martina Cole firmly in her place'



'The Drop is chosen by Peter Millar in The Times as one of his Top 5 crime thrillers of the year'



'a brutal, hard-hitting debut which opens up Newcastle's dark, violent underbelly like a freshly-sharpened stiletto'



'writing that leaps off the page in its lacerating forcefulness... a classic British gangster novel that evokes and matches some of the best writing in the genre'



'The Drop is overflowing with the grit that defines the very best of British gangster fiction'