Cut To Black

Time's up for Bazza Mackenzie.  His choke hold on Portsmouth's cocaine market has earned him millions of pounds, money he's invested in a portfolio of legitimate businesses.  Rich and well-connected, he boasts of being beyond the beckoning arm of the law. The police, only too aware of the message Mackenzie sends, have mounted a long-term covert operation, code named Tumbril, to take down the city's biggest criminal.  But when the detective in charge of Tumbril is.  nearly killed in a mysterious hit-and-run, the gloves are off. And it falls to Joe Faraday to put Mackenzie before a judge and jury Tumbril is a career opportunity of a lifetime but the team at the heart of the operation are fighting a war of their own, hemmed in by rules of engagement that leave Faraday deeply uncomfortable.  His grip on events loosens further when his deaf son J-J is himself arrested on a supply charge after the death of a student from a heroin overdose.  As Tumbril gathers speed, and the demands for a result grow ever more pressing, Faraday finds himself totally isolated.  Just who can he really trust?Cut to Black is a gripping thriller about greed, power, corruption, and the iron pressures of political and personal compromise.  At the same time, it offers a remarkable insight into the on-going battle for control of the UK's multi-billion pound drugs business.  Every British city has a Bazza Mackenzie.  And every police chief faces the same question: Just how do you nail him?This is Graham Hurley's fifth novel to feature D/I Joe Faraday and DC Paul Winter.  It follows Turnstone, The Take, Angels Passing and Deadlight An award-winning TV documentary maker, Graham now writes full-time.  He lives with his wife, Lin, in Portsmouth.