Set In Leeds just a few years into the 21st century as Leeds United start to slip down the league tables, The Big Crunch is a fast-paced 70,000 word novel with strong language in places, dark themes and much humour, despite all that.

There are dark deeds and skull-duggery afoot somewhere on the fringes of Malkie's life. He's a computer graphics designer, an inventor of video games who's newly into astronomy, habitually into alcohol and struggling to survive on a planet no bigger than a speck of dandruff in a coal-mine in universal terms, as his life goes into free-fall and the big crunch of the title occurs at all levels - from computer crashes to a car being mysteriously totalled and a failing marriage - assisted by a full-time geek called Ian, an ex-hacker with a couple of murky associates, a passion for football and a flat at the low-rent end of the neighbourhood where Malkie mis-spends a few of his nights.

They're after the big prize, a contract that promises financial security year after year. But with Malkie in charge, what could possibly go right?