My first novel Beneath The Streets, a political thriller set in 1976, was published by Lightning Books in April 2020.
It is February 1976, and the naked corpse of an underage rent boy is fished out of a pond on Hampstead Heath. Since the police don’t seem to care, twenty-year-old Tommy Wildeblood – himself a former ‘Dilly boy’ prostitute – finds himself investigating. Dodging murderous Soho hoodlums and the agents of a more sinister power as the trail leads him from the mean streets of the capital to a lonely moor in North Devon and back again all the way to the heart of Westminster, Tommy finds himself caught up in something far bigger than he expected – a conspiracy forged at the very highest levels of the political establishment.
A gripping thriller with a cast of real-life characters, the book plays ‘what if’ with Seventies political history – with a sting in the tail that reminds us that the truth can be just as chilling as fiction.
‘A wonderfully evocative walk on the wild side of 1970s London, Beneath The Streets is darkly comic and deeply moving. A breathtaking, heartbreaking thriller.’ – Jake Arnott
‘Gripping, affecting deeply researched, with appearances from Harold Wilson and the Sex Pistols. It had me reaching for Wiki and gawping afresh at the wild extremes of late-70s Britain and its crazy, corrupt politics. The grubbiness and danger is all there. Bound to be the start of a series, and highly recommended’ – David Nicholls
‘Ticks all the boxes for me. Gay history. Jeremy Thorpe. And a rent boy turned detective called Tommy Wildeblood. Fantastic’ – Jonathan Harvey
‘A thrilling read…incredibly powerful’- Nina Sosanya
‘After I finished writing A Very English Scandal, I took a solemn vow — that I would rather spit-roast my own offspring than read anything else about the Jeremy Thorpe Affair. Seldom have I gone back on my word with more pleasure. As boldly conceived as it is vividly realised, Beneath the Streets is a delight’ -John Preston, The Critic
‘A gripping thriller, interwoven with a really important thread about the condition of being gay in the 1970s’ Harriett Gilbert, A Good Read, BBC Radio 4
‘Adam Macqueen’s gripping debut novel is based on a provocative counterfactual question… He depicts his grim milieu engagingly – the 70s have seldom seemed so grotty and threatening – and this very English scandal has wit and invention to spare’ – The Observer
‘Adam Macqueen’s excellent debut thriller takes us back to 1976, a time of very British scandals. Former rent boy Tom Wildeblood is a thoroughly likeable hero and the seedy allure of the period is convincingly rendered, while the plot skilfully mixes fact with fiction’ – Mail on Sunday
‘What if Jeremy Thorpe had succeeded in murdering Norman Scott? That’s the gripping premise behind this smart story of corruption, murder and establishment cover-up’- iPaper, 40 best books of the year
‘A gripping and occasionally hilarious depiction of what, up to this year at least, must have been the craziest period of modern British politics. The twist, on literally the last page, is superb. While some 1970s scandals were played out beneath the streets, some were hiding in very plain sight’ – Law Society Gazette
‘A gripping what-if thriller – a fucking fantastic read’ – Tom Robinson
‘Lifts the lid on 1970s subculture to spine-tingling effect’ – Paul Burston
‘A thrilling and brilliantly imaginative novel. It takes you into the secret world of Soho in the 1970s. But then suddenly it opens another door into the hidden world of violence and corruption that still lies underneath the England we know today’ – Adam Curtis
Buy a copy direct from my publishers here. Use the code RINKA at checkout to get 30% off and free postage&packing in the UK.
Adam Macqueen 