City of Tiny Lights

Meet Tommy Akhtar: cricket fan, devoted son and deadbeat private eye. He's got an office above a suburban cab firm, a taste for B&H and Wild Turkey (aka 'Benny and Turk') and a finely tuned moral compass that he keeps well hidden behind a sharp line in cynicism. When Tommy walks in one morning to find high-class prostitute Exotic Melody seeking his help, it's the archetypal set up for an utterly original modern noir. Melody wants Tommy to find her friend and 'flatmate', Natasha, last seen meeting a new client at a swanky Mayfair bar. He has little luck tracking down Natasha, but he does find the dead body of Pakistani businessman, Usman Rana, in a cheap hotel; and, before he knows it, he's been drawn into a sinister world triangulated by MI5, smack dealers and radical Islam. His journey to uncover the truth leads him deep into the murky politics of modern London and deeper still into his own history as a member of the 'Churchill Massive', a gang of friends growing up together in the suburbs at the height of late '90s New Labour optimism. Haafiz 'Lovely' Ansari was the heart of the gang and Tommy's best friend. Lovely had it all: looks, char, cool parents and a nice yard - everything Tommy lacked. In fact, you know what? Lovely's now a successful entrepreneur and community figurehead - he's still got it all. But, Lovely was also Rana's business partner and when Shelley Stevens, the Churchill Massive's leading lady, returns to the old neighbourhood after a twenty-year absence, Tommy finds past and present ever more entangled. With the web of intrigue drawing tighter and friendships tested to the limits, Tommy finds himself increasingly confronted by the tragic accident that scarred their youth (and which he's spent his entire adult life drinking to forget). Should he forgive himself and, with Shelley's help, mend his broken heart, or must he succumb to the familiar consequences of old weaknesses (his own and other people's)? Can he realize that the question is less 'who' killed Rana than 'why' and, ultimately, will he distinguish the truth about the city from all those tiny lights?—Patrick Neate