Duffy Series

Duffy is summoned to a country manor for his hairiest case yet Vic Crowther’s housekeeper found the body. Ricky bled out after crashing through the French windows of the manor’s library. Crowther doesn’t know who did this to Ricky, but he does know whom to blame. Duffy, the security consultant who installed the dodgy burglar alarm, will have to answer for this murder. When Duffy rushes out to the country to smooth things over, he finds more than one surprise. First of all, Ricky was a dog. And Braunscombe Hall is filled to capacity with strange folks—even by Duffy’s rarefied standards. His country sojourn is extended—as are his headaches—when he finds that each of the eccentric guests has a problem that needs his expertise.

“There are too many ways of breaking a footballer’s leg. Too many, that is, from the footballer’s point of view. Others may find the freedom of choice encouraging.” Third Division Athletic has been an unlucky club for ages, but things are about to get much worse. Danny Matson, Athletic’s top scorer, is out for the season after a scuffle inexplicably leaves him with a ruptured Achilles tendon. The team’s manager, Jimmy Lister, is convinced that someone is intentionally kicking the team while it’s down, and he hires Nick Duffy to get to the bottom of it. Duffy has always been a worrier. He frets about his weight, about his burgeoning relationship with constable Carol Lucas, about his promiscuity with both men and women, and about the AIDS epidemic sweeping through London. This latest case gives him an opportunity to focus his attention elsewhere, on a list of suspects ranging from trophy-hungry supporters to hardcore skinheads bent on whitewashing England.

Duffy’s latest clients: The thieves of Heathrow Airport Down-and-out Duffy takes a stranger home from the pub for a one-night stand to take his mind off his scuffling private security business. But his bedmate surprises him with a job offer the next morning. Turns out Mr. Right Now is chummy with the freight thieves of Heathrow. The airport’s crooks pride themselves on their restraint, but someone has been pilfering much more than his share. The Heathrow hoods need a detective to find out who has been robbing them. The seedy, sly Duffy is the only man for such an absurd job. But when he baits his hook for the bad thieves, he lands something much more dangerous.

Seedy, sly London private detective Nick Duffy is on the case in a series that’s “exciting, funny and refreshingly nasty” (Martin Amis).   Nick Duffy was a copper on the vice squad until malicious rumors about his own sex life ripped through the force. Now he’s in private security. No stranger to London’s seedier offerings, Duffy is just the right man for cases that are a little morally slippery—in a sharp-witted series that has “the snap and crackle of Raymond Chandler” (The Washington Post Book World). In these four novels, “it is the Nabokovian blend of funny and sinister, the sense of tongue in scarred cheek, that lingers” (The Sunday Times).   Duffy: Hired by a disreputable businessman who’s being blackmailed by one of the city’s most dangerous crime lords, Duffy must navigate Soho’s underworld of prostitutes, porn moguls, and hoods.   “One of the most colourful and entertaining English thrillers.” —London Evening Standard   Fiddle City: The freight thieves of Heathrow Airport have a problem: Someone has been pilfering more than his share. These Heathrow hoods need a private detective to find out who’s been robbing them—and down-and-out Duffy takes the case.   “The characterization is exact, the action gripping, and the writing pleasantly ironic.” —The Times (London)   Putting the Boot In: Every football team expects injuries, but Third Division Athletic seems to be exceptionally unlucky. The manager hires Duffy to find out who’s intentionally kicking the team while it’s down, and soon he’s taking on everyone from diehard fans to hard-core skinheads.   “Kavanagh is as beady-eyed and hilarious as ever, Duffy a disgraceful chuckle and more.” —The Observer   Going to the Dogs: As the security consultant who installed a dodgy burglar alarm, Duffy is called to a country manor to find out who defenestrated the owner’s dog. But he arrives to find Braunscombe Hall full of eccentric guests, aka suspects.   “In Going to the Dogs, author Dan Kavanagh does it with verve and humor.” —Newsday