David Blake is no gangster, or so he likes to think. He's a white-collar criminal, working for gangster Bobby Mahoney, enjoying the good life while the money keeps on pouring in. Trouble is, a big chunk of that money has just gone missing, along with Geordie Cartwright, and Blake is getting the blame.

Has Geordie done a runner with The Drop or has he been killed by a rival gang? As Blake goes deeper into the Newcastle underworld, a seedy and violent place filled with dodgy clubs, pubs, lap-dancing bars and brothels, he slowly starts to uncover the truth; there's a rat in Bobby's crew and someone else is planning a take-over. Meanwhile the Serious and Organised Crime squad and an ambitious D.I are both closing in on Bobby. It's just a matter of time before he's finally nicked for good. Blake must uncover the truth before it's too late for them all.

If that were not enough, he has to choose between his girlfriend, the beautiful lawyer Laura and the impossible-to-resist Sarah, his boss's gorgeous young daughter. Sarah might just be the most dangerous person in his life right now, if her dad finds out.

In a desperate and bloody finale, Blake has to make an agonising choice and someone has to pay the ultimate price in 'The Drop'

'Linskey delivers a flawless feel for time and place, snappy down to earth dialect dialogue mixed in with unrelenting violence and pace. A Tyneside Dashiell Hammett to put Martina Cole firmly in her place' - Times

'Writing that leaps off the page in its lacerating forcefulness... a classic British gangster novel that evokes and matches some of the best writing in the genre' - Crime Time

Look out for the other books in Howard Linskey's David Blake series, The Damage and The Dead, as well as his Second World War thrillers: Hunting the Hangman and Ungentlemanly Warfare