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Paying for It by Tony Black

IT WAS probably around the time of the new Scottish Parliament opening for business that the idea for PAYING FOR IT hit me.

I was working as a hack in the north of Scotland when suddenly my patch was overrun with a new layer of politicians scrabbling to get their noses in the publicity trough. To a one they were B-listers, and to a one they were enjoying the limo lifestyle a little too much.

I remember one shiny-arse turning up for a press call with an entourage to put Queen Victoria to shame and that night I found myself writing the scene where my protagonist, hack-turned investigator, Gus Dury, head-buts a government minister ... well, you can't get away with it in real life!

The story, and Gus, grew fairly effortlessly from there with PAYING FOR IT picked up by the legendary Rosie de Courcy, the editorial driving force behind Preface, a new imprint of Random House, in 2007.

At its core, PAYING FOR IT is a murder mystery surrounding the torture and killing of a twenty-something lad in Edinburgh. It's the son of Gus's best friend that's been killed and as Gus is coming to terms with his own scarred relationship with his father the case forces him to confront some demons closer to home.

Making Gus's life even more difficult are Eastern European gangsters, rogue police officers, a people-smuggling ring linked to underage prostitution and, of course, a politician up to his neck in sleaze.

Who said Edinburgh was genteel?

Paying for It is published by Preface