Web of Deceit

A fast-paced Scottish thriller with intrigue, deception, blackmail, betrayal and bloody murder.

Tony Palmer, kingpin of Dundee’s underworld, leads a charmed life until the morning he wakes up beside the dead body of Angel. That’s when his life becomes a disaster zone where he risks losing everything.

Angel, the star pole dancer at Teasers nightclub is savagely murdered in her bed.

Tony’s main business is running his nightclub Teasers where he spends much of his time, but he also has other business interests, both legal and illegal. Earlier in the year, his life was disrupted when his daughter, Denise was murdered. The story is contained within a previous novel Dead Wood. When this happened, Tony stopped philandering with his pole-dancing employees to remain faithful to his wife.

The morning Tony woke up in bed next to the dead body of Angel, the dancer with whom he’d previously had a fling set off a sequence of events that would change his life forever. He has no memory of how he got there although he had escorted Angel home after she was threatened in Teasers by Jimmy Matthews, a Glasgow gangster. Tony doesn’t think he killed Angel although in his befuddled state of mind he can’t be totally sure. He removes all evidence of his presence at the murder scene and returns home.

DS Bill Murphy has been itching for enough evidence to convict Tony and is involved in the investigation into Angel’s murder. He is convinced Tony is responsible and pursues him hoping to find enough evidence to finally convict him.

Jimmy Matthews, the vicious gangster who accosted Angel, is also on Tony’s trail. He has designs on Teasers and is determined to get rid of Tony and take his place as Dundee’s Mr Big. He has previous form for this having left an Edinburgh nightclub owner wheelchair-bound after a violent takeover. Matthews focuses on getting to Tony by endangering his wife, Madge, who has been suffering from depression since the murder of her daughter.

Tony is caught up in a web of events. The police are closing in. DS Bill Murphy is hot on his trail, Jimmy Matthews and his gang are circling, and his wife is in danger. He has to find Angel’s killer before these events swallow him up.

Intrigue, deception, blackmail, betrayal, and bloody murder. A fast-paced Scottish thriller where nothing is ever the way it seems.