The Drop

Critical Acclaim for The Drop
    'Linskey delivers a flawless feel for time and place, snappy down to earth dialect dialogue mixed in with unrelenting violence and pace. A Tyneside Dasheill Hammett to put Martina Cole firmly in her place.'
    Peter Millar, The Times
     
    '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'
    Vic Buckner, Crime Time
     
    'The Drop is overflowing with the grit that defines the very best of British gangster fiction'
    M. K. Hume, Bookgeeks
     
    'Howard Linskey does for Newcastle what Ian Rankin has done for Edinburgh'
    Sam Millar, New York Journal of Books
     
    'Howard Linskey does for Newcastle what Ian Rankin has done for Edinburgh'
    Sam Millar, New York Journal of Books
     
    'a brutal, hard-hitting debut which opens up Newcastle's dark, violent underbelly like a freshly-sharpened stiletto'
    Simon Kernick
     
    'A cracker of a tale unrolled with great understatement but loaded with verve and pace. The backdrop is brutal, harsh and downright fatal for some, the characters jump right off the page, and I found the book difficult to put down. No Exit Press has found a real winner. '
    Adrian Magson, Shots
     
    'A cracker of a tale unrolled with great understatement but loaded with verve and pace. The backdrop is brutal, harsh and downright fatal for some, the characters jump right off the page, and I found the book difficult to put down. No Exit Press has found a real winner. '
    Adrian Magson, Shots
     
    'a razor-sharp debut and Linskey is sure to be at the forefront of Northern crime writing in 2011. A writer to keep an eye on.'
    Nick Quantrill, Harrogate Festival website
     
    'a very successful first novel'
    Chris Shepherd, newbooks magazine
     
    'A fast-paced, hard-boiled tale that zips along'
    The Crack
     
    'Linskey has a knack of expressing a mindset with clarity, humour and realism which along with the earthy vocabulary combines to create a marvellous tale.'
    Crimesquad
     
    'A deftly written crime thriller, which really shows off Linskey's skill at storytelling'
    Luca Veste, Guilty Conscience
     
    'Brilliant. Gangster writing at its best.'
    Paul Cleave - winner of the Ngaio Marsh Award

 
     
     
     
     
    THE DROP
    HOWARD LINSKEY
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    NO EXIT PRESS

For Erin & Alison

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    I would like to thank the following for their faith and unflagging support during the writing of this book; Adam Pope, Andy Davis, Nikki Hurley and Gareth Chennells.
    Sincere thanks to my publisher Ion Mills, at No Exit, for believing in The Drop . Thanks also to the whole team at No Exit, in particular Annette Crossland, Alan Forster for the cover design plus Claire Watts, Chris Burrows, Jolanta Kietaviciute and Alexandra Bolton for their hard work on my behalf, and also my anonymous copy editor – you know who you are.
    A very big thank you to my Literary Agent, Phil Patterson at Marjacq, for his sound advice, editorial assistance and general good company, all of which is very greatly appreciated by me. Thanks also to the incomparable Isabella Floris at Marjacq for her amazing efforts in foreign markets and also to Luke Speed and Jacqui Lyons. Thanks also to Simon Kernick for taking the trouble to read The Drop and for his kind words thereafter.
    Finally and most importantly a huge thank you to my loving wife, Alison, and beautiful daughter Erin for their amazing support and for putting up with me and all of this writing. This one is for you!

PROLOGUE
    ...................................................
    L ook at her. Go on, look. Take a good, long look. Beautiful isn’t she; standing there by the swimming pool; five feet six inches of slim, tanned, hard-bodied, healthy young woman. I mean, what’s not to like about Laura?
    Look at the way the water slides reluctantly from her hips as she climbs out of the water in that tiny black bikini. She turns and grabs the long, dark hair that trails down her back then squeezes the water out, before combing it back with her fingers, making it hang straight. Then she looks up and smiles at me. She’s got a good smile, warm and naughty and it’s making me wonder what my chances are of peeling that little black bikini off her just one last time before we have to fly home again.
    She’s bright too, a lawyer and it’s always useful to know one of those, particularly in my profession. She knows what I do for a