Gus Dury once had a high-flying career as a journalist and a wife he adored. But now he is living on the edge, a drink away from Edinburgh’s down-and-outs, drifting from bar to bar, trying not to sign divorce papers. But the road takes an unexpected turn when a friend asks him to investigate the brutal torture and killing of his son, and Gus becomes embroiled in a much bigger story of political corruption and illegal people-trafficking. Seedy doss-houses, bleak wastelands and sudden violence contrast with the cobbled streets and cool bistros of fashionable Edinburgh, as the puzzle unravels to a truly shocking ending.

Praise for PAYING FOR IT:

A fine debut. Black is the new noir. –Allan Guthrie, winner of the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for Two-Way Split

Tony Black’s first novel hits the ground running, combining a sympathetic ear for the surreal dialogue of the dispossessed with a portrait of the belly of a city painted in the blackest of humour. –The Guardian

Paying For It might just be the most aptly titled novel of the year. Rarely has a title worked on so many levels…the narrative blasts off the page like a triple malt…This is one adrenalin-pumped novel, as moving and compassionate as it is stylishly written. –Ken Bruen, author of The Guards novels

Assuming (and hoping) that this is the first of many featuring the tortured Gus Dury, we’ve never seen a series character so richly and honestly drawn from the get-go. The emotional punches connect solidly in Paying For It, as the pains of being a father and the pains of being a son are laid bare. The debut of the year. –Tod Robinson, Thuglit.com

Of all the new writers emerging this year, he is the one to watch. –Martyn Waites, author of the Joe Donovan series