Jake Arnott

“It happened at a place where three roads meet. Junction 1A of the M25, heading east towards Gravesend. There’s a killer on the road.”Lee Royal – the King of Kent – is dead. Killed on the M25 in a brutal act of road rage. But was this a random attack or something more premediated – something stemming from a dark and long-kept secret? With Lee’s death, so begins a cat and mouse game to discover the truth …Jo Royal, Lee’s wife, has long been discontented in her marriage. A complicated relationship and a marriage fraught with secrets and betrayals has left a steady resentment for Lee bubbling away under the surface. But does this give her motive enough to want him dea? ddie Pierce – young, ambitious and ruthless – is the new kid on the block. Determined at any cost to move up the ranks within the criminal underbelly of Kent, his growing infatuation with Jo only gives him more to fight for. But as his obsession with finding Lee’s killer takes over, his grip on what is fact and fiction begins to dangerously unravel. What is he capable of doing to become the next King of Ken? ommander Ray Spinks of Scotland Yard has been a long-time associate of Lee’s. Brash, arrogant and underhand – he is owed his share of the wealth Lee has amassed and he won’t let anyone get in his way. What starts as a seemingly random act of violence will soon turn into a high-stakes man hunt for a killer and the revelation of an explosive secret that will have devastating consequences. Blood Rival is a fast-paced, addictive and twisty thriller told at a whiplash speed, rife with dark family secrets and deadly stakes. A story of lust, betrayal and tragedy.

London, the 1720s. Welcome to 'Romeville', the underworld of that great city. The financial crash caused by the South Sea Bubble sees the rise of Jonathan Wild, self-styled 'Thief-taker General' who purports to keep the peace while brutally controlling organised crime. Only two people truly defy him: Jack Sheppard, apprentice turned house-breaker, and his lover, the notorious whore and pickpocket Edgworth Bess.From the condemned cell at Newgate, Bess gives her account of how she and Jack formed the most famous criminal partnership of their age: a tale of lost innocence and harsh survival, passion and danger, bold exploits and spectacular gaol-breaks - and of the price they paid for rousing the mob of Romeville against its corrupt master. Bess dictates her narrative to Billy Archer, a Grub Street hack and aspiring poet who has rubbed shoulders with Defoe and Swift. But he also inhabits that other underworld of 'molly-houses' and 'unnameable sin', and has his own story of subterfuge, treachery and doomed romance to deliver. As the gallows casts its grim shadow, who will live to escape the Fatal Tree? By the acclaimed author of THE LONG FIRM, this is a tour de force; inventive, atmospheric and rich in the street slang of the era. Drawing on real figures and a true history of crime, punishment and rough justice, it tells a heartbreaking story of love and betrayal.