The Hollow Man [Paperback]

"He's [Belsey] got to be London's coolest cop... Harris has plundered London's underworld for his richly plotted and unusual detective series... It's heady stuff"--Daily Mail

"The story works as a thriller but it's also a very entertaining read, all the more because the locations are so precisely described. It gives new meaning to the expression 'Hampstead novel'."--Jessica Mann, The Literary Review

"The Hollow Man is another great debut novel you can't afford to miss!"--CrimeSquad

"With a seasoned author's skill and a cabbie's encyclopedic knowledge of London's every nook and cranny, debut novelist Oliver Harris tells a pacey tale firmly rooted in the credit-crunched modern world. A blistering start to a promising new crime series."--Short List

"This is an astonishingly good first novel. Its plot is original, its dialogue lively, and in DC Belsey- the man who can't make up his mind whether he's a corrupt slacker or a dedicated detective and seems cursed to be both at once- it has a protagonist who truly stands out from the crowd."--Morning Star

"...a plot that twists and turns like the back streets of Kentish Town: this is a cracker of a debut by local boy Oliver Harris."--Camden New Journal

'A twisting spiral of lies and corruption, a pitch-perfect portrait of contemporary London and a beguiling bastard of a hero -- what a recipe for a great read.' Val McDermid

Detective Nick Belsey is broke. Now it looks like he's out of a job - something happened last night, something with the boss's wife...

At dawn, on what should be the last day of Belsey's career, Hampstead CID is ghostly quiet. Belsey checks the overnight files. There's a missing-person report. But this one's different. It's on the Bishops Avenue, London's richest street. Belsey sees a scam, an escape route.

But he hasn't got there first.

Furiously paced and thrillingly plotted, The Hollow Man is a black love letter to London's shadow world. It marks the beginning of a seductive contemporary detective series, and the arrival of a future master of the genre.

Detective Nick Belsey is broke. Now it looks like he's out of a job - something happened last night, something with the boss's wife...

At dawn, on what should be the last day of Belsey's career, Hampstead CID is ghostly quiet. Belsey checks the overnight files. There's a missing-person report. But this one's different. It's on the Bishops Avenue, London's richest street. Belsey sees a scam, an escape route.

But he hasn't got there first.

Furiously paced and thrillingly plotted, The Hollow Man is a black love letter to London's shadow world. It marks the beginning of a seductive contemporary detective series, and the arrival of a future master of the genre.

Oliver Harris was born in north London in 1978. He has a first-class degree in English Literature and an MA in Shakespeare studies from UCL, and an MA in creative writing from UEA. He has worked in clothing warehouses, PR companies and as a TV and film extra. More recently he assisted with research in the Imperial War Museum archives, and continues to act as a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement. He is pursuing a PhD in psychoanalysis and Greek myth at Birkbeck's London Consortium.