Old Gold

Half-Romani detective Eoin Miller finds people for a living―usually people who would do anything to remain hidden. Ironic considering Eoin has done all he can to lose himself in a downward spiral that has cost him his job, his respect, his wife, and anything else that ever mattered. But he’s not inclined to dwell on what he’s given up, and Eoin prefers it that way.

Then he meets Mary, a hard-drinking woman on the run who confides that she’s stolen a valuable item, one that certain people would kill to get back. The two of them seek a temporary―and incomplete―solace in each other’s arms, only for Mary to turn up as a corpse in Eoin’s bed the next morning, him asleep on the sofa.

Recalling his father’s aversion to authority, Eoin runs from the body, but he hates a mystery and is driven to discover the truth behind Mary’s murder, even if it means putting his own life on the line. Before long, Eoin’s tangled up in a ferocious turf war that has him playing his former allies and employers―crime lords, drug dealers, cops, and politicians―against each other.

A Black Country native, Jay Stringer was raised on pulp fiction, comic books, morgue humor, music, and films. He found inspiration for Old Gold in his UK homeland and the postindustrial region where he grew up. Currently living in Glasgow, he has been published in The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, volumes 8 and 9, and considers his works to be pieces of “social pulp.” Alongside writing, Stringer has been a zookeeper, a bookseller, a video editor, and a call center lackey. Old Gold is his first novel.