Full Whack

From the author of the latest official James Bond novel

''Charlie Higson''s thrillers are major events'' Mark Billingham

''Piercing wit and accelerated action in finely paced style'' Time Out

''Lively narration, a superabundance of action... gruesome and hilarious'' Evening Standard

Dennis ''The Menace'' Pike, former wild man of Tottenham, is going grey and going straight. Anyway, it was hard work being a yob- the birds, the brawls, the endless beers- and he hasn''t really got the energy any more for life on the edge. Then two old faces turn up from the past- the Bishop brothers, Chas and Noel. Famously inept, they were bad news then, and they haven''t aged well. What''s worse, they need Pike''s expertise on a scheme wealth distribution really- offloading one of the old gang''s ill-gotten millions. Robbing the robbers- now what''s criminal about that?

Pike, still haunted by what happened one wreckless night all those years ago, refuses to get involved. But old habits die hard, and when he suddenly finds his bank account tampered with, Pike is drawn back into a world he spent ten years escaping. Thug or mug, he is nevertheless forced to confront a man so psychotically unhinged that his own youth seems like mere kids'' stuff...

A slick, razor-sharp novel, FULL WHACK is packed full of searing wit, scurrilous characters and nefarious knock-about.