In Manchester, our narrator leaves Strangeways prison determined to find out who has fitted him up for a crime he didn't commit. But things on the outside are worse than he thought: his nephew has been shot dead and his wife and children have disappeared; someone is clearly still out to get him.

The novel follows him as he plunges into the murky criminal underworld in search of the truth. Over the next thirty days, as he works tirelessly to unravel the plot against him, he finds that he has more enemies than he realised - on both sides of the law. But he has friends too; friends who are more than happy to help an honourable criminal clear his name.

A complex and tightly-plotted thriller, The Last Straight Face is tough, realistic and utterly gripping to the very last page.