Horror faced by refugees unfolds in pacy thriller

Much has changed since the 1990s when this book is set. Mobile phones, social media, emails and all the rest have revolutionised the way we work. Another aspect of professional life that has moved on is money laundering and our attitude to risk for solicitors. This thriller is about crime and particularly money laundering – 1990s style. The hero is a solicitor called Ian Sutherland who we have met before in a previous book. Much of the solicitor’s professional life is buying and selling properties, and the usual high street work.

The backdrop to this fast-paced thriller – set in North Yorkshire – is events in Kosovo, the civil war and the humanitarian crisis in the Balkans which led to refugees claiming asylum who became hard-working entrepreneurs. The story ends in an exciting showdown in the luxury hotels of Paris.

William Kinread did his articles at Simpson Curtis (now Pinsent Masons) and then joined a five-partner firm in Ripon, where he remained for 19 years. He went on to set up his own niche firm acting for high-net-worth individuals. He then joined a larger firm as a partner. After seven happy years, he joined a family firm run by his older sister, which gave him more time to write. The book features real events linked by fiction. Most of the characters are based on people Kinread has met throughout his career. He was particularly struck by the horror refugees had been through.

This is an original legal thriller.

David Pickup is a partner at Pickup & Scott Solicitors, Aylesbury