Dead Cat Bounce

Well, either way, you’ll have to speak to him today because… unless I get my money by tomorrow morning there’s not going to be a funeral.”

When your 11 year old brother has been tragically killed in a car accident, you might think that organising his funeral would take priority. But when Nicky’s coffin, complete with Nicky’s body, goes missing, deadbeat loser Matt has only 26 hours in which to find the £20,000 he owes a Glasgow gangster or explain to his grieving mother why there’s not going to be a funeral.

Enter middle brother, Pete, successful hedge fund manager with an expensive wife, expensive children, and an expensive villa in Tuscany. Pete’s watches cost £20,000, but he has his own problems, and Matt doesn’t want his help anyway.

Seething with old resentments, the betrayals of the past and the double-dealings of the present, the two brothers must find a way to work together to retrieve Nicky’s body and discover that they are not so different after all.

Kevin Scott’s first novel is an assured and audacious black comedy of sibling rivalries and a satirical comment on the failures of modern society.