Roland Parry

House of Lads Roland Parry

Show them whose side you're on...

A fight in a Liverpool pub wrecks it all for Azo Coke, a pizza-delivery man and petty delinquent. He's staring at jail time and they will not let him see his little boy, Ali.

Azo knows how a boy needs a dad - his own left when he was a child and he has felt lost ever since.

But on the night Azo is arrested, the shadowy spymaster Paterson walks into his cell. Work for me, Paterson says, and I will wipe your slate clean. The job: spying on a gang of violent extremists, led by Raz, a sadistic mercenary-turned-arms dealer.

Raz has gathered a squad of homeless misfits under his roof and is training them for an attack - among them Maya, a disturbed hacker on the run for bank fraud. Azo falls in love with her - but Paterson has plans for Maya too.

Forced to play along with Raz, Azo does what he must to stay alive and protect his son: informing on the gang while fighting to keep his real identity hidden. But his cover is starting to unravel.

Once the Liverpool docks were called the warehouse of the empire. Now, Azo discovers, they're a gateway for fighters seeking to attack Britain. His bloody mission through the city's underworld lays bare a deadly plot and the terrifying truth of who Azo and his long-lost father really are.

House of Lads is the first in a series of explosive Azo Coke thrillers by Merseyside-born writer Roland Parry, told in Azo's unforgettable voice - as hard-boiled as Raymond Chandler, as gritty and irreverent as Irvine Welsh and as topical and suspenseful as Mark Dawson.