A South London kidnapping goes violently awry in this "startlingly original crime novel" from the award-winning author of The Guards ( British GQ) . As pretty, well read, and available as she was, most men would have passed on a foul-mouthed jailbait junkie like Lisa. Not Nick. A bouncer from southeast London, he knew what he liked. He went in with both eyes open and stayed there—even when she burned through his savings and cost him his job. Luckily, she had an idea for bringing in extra cash: kidnap a local African American bar owner, a pretentious, yoga obsessed, Rilke-spouting man of means with a white trophy wife. He deserved a good punch to the gut. However, it was Nick's bad idea to bring in his neighbor, a clean-cut, Reba McEntire–loving good old boy, and psycho to the bone. But not one of them anticipated Nick's ex-girlfriend, Bonny, who came in out of the blue with her own agenda to ignite the biggest spark in the plot. The question isn't who's going to fire the first shot. It's who's going to fire the last. "Fast-paced, tough and pretty sexy" ( Pulp), Rilke on Black is further proof that the author of the Jack Taylor series "has become the crime novelist to read" (George Pelecanos).
