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The inspiration for the major motion picture starring Daniel Craig: a high-octane crime novel set in the dangerous London underworld of the 1990s.
Kingpins, dealers, rival gangs, false allegiances, bad faith, and good money. There are many levels to the world of drugs lurking beneath the polished surface of London—a "layer cake" of crime that can chew up and spit out even the most experienced of players. Though he's only twenty-nine, our narrator ("If I told you my name, you'd be as clever as me") has made a small fortune in cocaine, enough to retire by thirty if he plays his cards right.
But then word comes down that Jimmy Price, one of the biggest Dons in the city, has a job for him, one last big score that could set him up for good. All he has to do is find Charlotte Ryder—and then figure out how to escape the tangled web of the underworld alive.
A high-intensity novel filled with bluffs and double crosses, dangerous enemies and even more treacherous allies, Layer Cake is a "walloping debut" (Kirkus Reviews), guaranteed to take you on a breathless, breakneck ride from the first page to the final con.
"A storming piece of work: funny and serious by turns, with an abiding sense of conviction." —The Guardian
Praise for Layer Cake
“British author Connolly’s first novel is a cool and sinuous crime story, smothered in street jargon and suffused with an abiding love of all that’s illegal. . . . Connolly knows how to spin a good yarn . . . . A walloping debut that could well presage a wave of Brit crime lit heading for these shores.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A flawless, lightning-swift pulp crime drama, rich in the language of the British underworld . . . a brilliantly crafted, linguistically dense, European wise-guy tale. Readers will find themselves funning for the triumph of lesser evil.” —Publisher’s Weekly
“A stunningly original debut . . . Connolly’s slice of low life is utterly mesmerizing. A two-thumbs-up effort by a talented British newcomer.” —Booklist
“Layer Cake is a storming piece of work: funny and serious by turns with an abiding sense of conviction . . . the novel has a grasp of street argot unparalleled since Kinky Friedman first sashayed out of his front door.” —D. J. Taylor, The Guardian (UK)
“If the brilliantly written and intriguing Layer Cake is anything to go by, [Connolly] will soon be a name to whet the appetites of readers and critics alike.” —The Times (London)
“Once I’d read a few pages I was hooked. . . . Connolly’s style is fast and funny and just frightening enough to make you sit up all night finishing the book. Layer Cake could easily emulate [The Sopranos]’s success if made into a television series.” —Independent on Sunday
“Mission accomplished. One novel in, and Connolly has hit the jackpot, jump-started British crime fiction into the present. . . . Like good drug fiction, you’re given glamour and squalor, a voyeuristic thrill, and the bill.” —Uncut (Five-star rating)
“Connolly displays the same infectious relish for underworld argot as Elizabethan writers fascinated by rogues’ cant, and his ostensibly artless plotting is as rich in double and triple crosses as a spy thriller.” —The Sunday Times (London)
“An immensely entertaining read.” —The Spectator (UK)
“This year’s crime read should be J.J. Connolly’s Layer Cake.” —Mike Pattenden, The Times (UK)
“By far and away the best piece of crime pulp fiction either side of the Atlantic since Seth Morgan’s Homeboy and a Get Carter for the chemical generation.” —Paul Dale, The List
“J.J. Connolly has created the caper of the year . . . it’s fantastic.” —Bizarre
“A linguistic fairground, the characters chat with an authenticity that’s intoxicating. Wannabe geezers would look plumy next to these boys, and yet just a few pages in the language opens up like some forgotten playground.” —Pil
“Fantastic. The best crime novel I’ve ever read.” —Bruce Reynolds
J. J. Connolly has wrote Layer Cake and adapted it for the screen. He is currently working on a follow-up novel. He lives and works in London.