Author Meyrick moves into gangland territory
Crime author Denzil Meyrick has taken a break from his best-selling DCI Daley series to pen a modern-day gangland thriller.
With one million copies of the DCI Daley series sold across all formats, Denzil is reaching out with a new voice and in a new direction.
Fans of the television shows The Sopranos and Gangs of London are likely to enjoy Meyrick’s new novel, Terms of Restitution, which will be published in hardback in September.
While the DCI Daley novels are set in Kinloch, a fictional town based on Denzil’s native Campbeltown, Terms of Restitution is a new venture, revealing the darker side of human nature and taking readers to the dark streets of London and the Scottish town Paisley.
Gangland boss Zander Finn is so sickened by the brutal murder of his son in a Paisley pub that he decides to change his life.
Following the advice of his priest and mentor, he moves clandestinely to London and becomes an ambulance driver.
But when his old second-in-command Malky Maloney tracks him down on a London street, Finn knows he must return.
Both his real family and his crime family face an existential threat from Albanian mobsters determined to take control of the Scottish underworld.
Facing the forces of law and order under Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Amelia Langley and a mysterious Italian woman, Finn struggles for survival in a rollercoaster ride of brutality, tenderness, misplaced loyalties and the utterly unexpected.
The path to redemption is a bumpy one and it begins to look like Finn should have stayed in London.
‘I’m absolutely thrilled to bring readers something new,’ said Denzil, who lives on Loch Lomondside. ‘I’m a huge fan of The Sopranos television show. The mix of visceral crime, family life and bags of humour, I think, more accurately represents real life than unremittingly dark noir.
‘Thinking about that model, I’ve used my own approach in Terms of Restitution. No-one lives a single-themed life and I believe it’s really important, if any authenticity is to be had, that characters inhabit as real and relatable a world as possible. In Terms of Restitution, we see the stresses and strains of life on Zander Finn as he struggles to come to terms with the pressure of his two families, his blood relatives and his business family.
‘I’m also excited to unveil a new cast of characters, full of strong women like DCI Amelia Langley and Maggie Finn, the formidable matriarch of both Zander’s families.
‘All told, I’m more than excited to let you spend time with the Finns in Terms of Restitution.’
Is this a scintillating one-off? Or will it be the start of a new must-buy series? Denzil’s fans from Campbeltown to Canada will be thrilled to find out.
And for those who can’t wait, his ninth DCI Daley novel, For Any Other Truth, will be published on June 3.