Detective Chief Inspector Billy McCartney discovers a headless corpse in the scrubland close to Liverpool docks. The slaying carries all the hallmarks of a gangland hit - a message from the underworld to snitches, cops and rival gangs. One mile away, a girl staggers into a run-down bar, dazed and confused. The bar's owner, a career criminal called Shakespeare, cannot get a word out of her. DCI McCartney is all too well aware that the clock is ticking. The body was one Kalan Rozaki, youngest brother of a notorious crime family - except Kalan is no criminal. For almost a year his brothers have been under full-time Drug Squad surveillance as McCartney slowly closed the net on their heroin trafficking. McCartney's chief informant on the case is someone with insider knowledge of the Rozaki clan's operation ...their newly deceased baby brother, Kalan. McCartney's investigation into Kalan's murder peels back layer after layer of a decades-long dynasty of drug smuggling. Each revelation plunges McCartney back into the dark heart of an unsolved drug crime that weighs heavy on his soul. He wants to catch the Rozakis - badly - but he wants the shadowy men behind their drug empire even more. The closer McCartney gets to Kalan's killer, the closer he comes to facing down a lifetime's torment.
'Kevin Sampson's astringent novels takes us to mean streets of Liverpool; his language has all the demented idiosyncrasy of Elmore Leonard, with the interlacing of cut-throat humour barely undercutting the omnipresent menace. Things have changed since Raymond Chandler's day -- now British crime writers are quite as tough as the Yanks'. -- Barry Forshaw, Independent
'This is tough and uncompromising stuff which may not be one for the faint hearted, but if you like your crime fiction with killer twists and shout aloud reveals, then The Killing Pool is just the book for you. DeathBecomesHer chose this without hesitation as her crime novel of the year 2013.' -- CrimeFictionLover
'Atmospheric thriller... Sampson is adept at keeping [the character's] voices distinct throughout a pacy novel, with its complicated plot that is tense from beginning to end.' -- Liverpool Post
'The final few paragraphs are as magnificent as they are unexpected. You will put this book down with a sense of dizzy wonder' -- Sachin Nakrani
'A ferociously compelling slice of Scouse Noir.' -- James Walton Reader's Digest
Author
About Kevin Sampson
Kevin Sampson is the author of eight novels - Awaydays, Powder, Leisure, Outlaws, Clubland, Freshers, Starsare Stars and The Killing Pool - and a work of non-fiction, Extra Time. He lives and works in Liverpool.
