Pay your debts. Protect your family. Never cross a loan shark.

This blisteringly original crime thriller and exciting debut smashes Mr Inbetween, Monkey Grip and Animal Kingdom into a gutter opera on the vicious, bent and drug-laden streets of Newcastle - written by the Pushcart nominated writer and 2009 shark attack survivor

Vincent Silk is back in the decaying maw of Australia's Steel City after losing everything - his money, his self-respect, and his friends and family. He wants to make amends but first he has to pay off his debts to an unhinged loan shark. With no way to make good, Vincent is forced to take on a brutal new role: working as an enforcer, a Teeth Kicker, collecting debts in a town where everyone owes someone something.

Vincent is big and imposing, so he should be a natural at hunting down late-payers, but he hates the violence and his conscience weighs heavy. Every knock on a door tests his resolve, especially when his next target turns out to be Henrietta, the woman who once saved him from an OD - and the someone he's in love with. Vincent wants to protect her, and he knows running isn't an option. The shark would come for their families, including Vincent's younger brother, Ray.

Vincent and Ray have a complicated past, scarred by a horrific car accident that left Ray an amputee and left Vincent with a metal plate in his head. As Ray spirals into his own trouble, Vincent decides to take matters into his own hands and solve everyone's problems - until it all unravels, and he's left with an impossible choice between the two people he loves the most.

Unless, of course, he's willing to sacrifice himself to save them both.

EARLY PRAISE

'A blistering, breathtaking gut punch of a novel' Kate Horan, bestselling author of The Inheritance and On the Edge

'A page-turner with depth: gritty and playful, brash and tender, with characters who will break your heart' Katerina Cosgrove, author of Bone Ash Sky and The Glass Heart