Not just another London cop with a troubled morality, Belsey whose patch is the unlikely one of affluent Hampstead, is a man very much on the skids: dishonest as they come, crooked to the nth degree and determined to survive at all cost. Somehow you end up cheering for him to overcome the terrible odds in this initial tale in which, on the point of being sacked, he comes across a corpse in a rich mansion and determines to impersonate the dead Russian oligarch and appropriate his fortune. If only it were that easy. First in a new series.
'A twisting spiral of lies and corruption' Val McDermid
From the hilltop he could see London, stretched towards the hills of Kent and Surrey. The sky was beginning to pale at the edges. The city itself looked numb as a rough sleeper; Camden and then the West End, the Square Mile. His watch was missing. He searched his pockets, found a bloodstained serviette and a promotional leaflet for a spiritual retreat, but no keys, phone or police badge.
Detective Nick Belsey needs help.
Something happened last night - something with the boss's wife - and Belsey needs to get out of London, and away from the debt and the drink and the deceit.
Collecting his belongings back at Hampstead CID on what should be the last day of his career, Belsey sees a missing person's report. But this one's different; this is on The Bishop's Avenue, one of the most expensive streets in the city. Belsey sees a chance for a new life.
But someone else got there first.
Praise for A Hollow Man
'[Belsey has] got to be London's coolest cop... Harris has plundered London's underworld for his richly plotted and unusual detective series... It's heady stuff' Daily Mail
Oliver Harris was born in north London in 1978. He has a first-class degree in English Literature and an MA in Shakespeare studies from UCL, and an MA in creative writing from UEA. He has worked in clothing warehouses, PR companies and as a TV and film extra. More recently he assisted with research in the Imperial War Museum archives, and continues to act as a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement. He is pursuing a PhD in psychoanalysis and Greek myth at Birkbeck's London Consortium.
