Description

When Jeremy Thorpe hired thugs to kill his ex-lover, they botched it. What if they had succeeded?

‘A breathtaking, heartbreaking thriller’ – Jake Arnott

LONGLISTED: Polari Prize

It is February 1976, and the naked corpse of a shockingly underage rent boy is fished out of a pond on Hampstead Heath. Since the police don’t seem to care, twenty-year-old Tommy Wildeblood – himself a former ‘Dilly boy’ prostitute – finds himself investigating.

Dodging murderous Soho hoodlums and the agents of a more sinister power, Tommy uncovers another, even more shocking crime: the Liberal leader and likely next Home Secretary, Jeremy Thorpe, has had his former male lover executed on Exmoor and got clean away with it. Now the trail of guilt seems to lead higher still, and a ruthless Establishment will stop at nothing to cover its tracks.

In a gripping thriller whose cast of real-life characters includes Prime Minister Harold Wilson, his senior adviser Lady Falkender, gay Labour peer Tom Driberg and the investigative journalist Paul Foot, Adam Macqueen plays ‘what if’ with Seventies political history – with a sting in the tail that reminds us that the truth can be just as chilling as fiction.

‘A fucking fantastic read. A gripping what-if thriller, packed with vivid period detail and page-turning twists. To find myself actually making an appearance in the final chapter was just cream on the cake’ – Tom Robinson

Publisher Review

'After I finished writing A Very English Scandal, I took a solemn vow - that I would rather spit-roast my own offspring than read anything else about the Jeremy Thorpe Affair. Seldom have I gone back on my word with more pleasure. As boldly conceived as it is vividly realised, Beneath the Streets is a delight' - John Preston, The Critic; 'Gripping... this very English scandal has wit and invention to spare' - The Observer; 'Adam Macqueen's excellent debut thriller [has] a thoroughly likeable hero while the plot skilfully mixes fact with fiction' - Mail on Sunday; 'What if Jeremy Thorpe had succeeded in murdering Norman Scott? That's the gripping premise behind this smart story of corruption, murder and establishment cover-up' - iPaper, 40 best books of the year