The Dealer by Tony Royden

THE DEALER
by Tony Royden
Published by Shotgun Publishing Ltd
ISBN 978-0-9561253-0-9

Hard-core East London villain, Danny 'The dealer' Dempsey, has settled for a quiet country life in the rural village of Buntleyford, but wakes one morning, in his heavily secured home, to find a letter resting on his pillow. He is bewildered by how it got there, as there are no signs of an intruder, or a break in.
The mystery of who the letter is from - and what it contains - is something The Dealer will not share, even with his closest friends, or his dear sister Sally.
The Dealer, normally a clear lateral thinker, is suddenly behaving out of character; and so begins a crazy 12 - hour period, in which he succeeds in ruining his sister's wedding, disrespecting other gangland leaders, and turning his hand to gambling on ludicrous bets. Slowly but surely, The Dealer is dangerously offending and taunting everyone around him.
Could The Dealer be on the brink of self-destruction? Or will he somehow succeed in saving his own skin at the final hour - while revealing to all the secrets of the letter that has clearly been dictating his bizarre behaviour?

What looks at first glance to be a typical crime novel soon turns out to be something completely different, with a collection of great characters,(a blind bodyguard a cross-dressing Colonel and the unhinged, pot-smoking, Harley Davidson-riding Vicar of Buntleyford) a quirky novel full of British humour and a great surprise ending, although I had my suspicions, it is an enjoyable and easy read.