Long Firm, The

Description:
London. The 1960s. The capital is swinging, but underneath the boomtown there's a dark underbelly. Meet Harry Starks: club owner, racketeer, porn king, sociology graduate and keen Judy Garland fan. Harry's business is fronting violence with rough charm and cheap glamour; putting the frighteners on, performing menace while desperately trying to jump the counter into legitimacy. Five characters tell five tales that combine in an extraordinary narrative that is both an explosively paced thriller and a brilliantly imagined sociological and topographical portrait of sixties London.

Review:
'This is pulp fiction so polished as to be immaculate' -- New Statesman 'Truly fascinating...Arnott's ability to powerfully resurrect an era is astonishing' -- Guardian 'Gripping...slumming it doesn't get much better than this' -- Time Out 'It is compulsive reading, powerful writing with an evocative feel for the bleaker side of the Swinging Sixties' -- The Times

Author Biography:
Jake Arnott was born in 1961, and lives in London. He worked as a labourer, a mortuary technician, a theatrical agent's assistant, an artist's life model and a sign language interpreter before his debut novel, THE LONG FIRM, was published by Sceptre in 1999 to huge public and critical acclaim. HE KILLS COPPERS and TRUECRIME followed to equal acclaim in 2001 and 2003, and in 2004 THE LONG FIRM was made into a Bafta-winning television series by the BBC. JOHNNY COME HOME was published by Sceptre in April 2006.