Death & the City

Lara Leatherstone - not her real name, she got it from an internet Porn Star Name Generator... ...And Connor Reeves, also not his real name, as it turns out - how he came by his, is less clear... Both are obliged to work their way through the To Do List of 'Hollywood Hit-Men' - a breed mostly preoccupied with gold chains, impressing barmaids, and shady contracts - erasing these unwanted pests with the minimum of paperwork. Or pay. When she's not under surveillance by head office, Lara spends her time juggling a night job in bar security, an only child with a zombie fixation, and what passes for a social life in the small hours in between. And the small matter of ongoing internal scrutiny, by her own highly-self-monitoring personality disorders. She is often distracted by her own psychotic train of thought, and analyses the dysfunctional relationships she sees in everyday life, because she's never had one. When head office try to set her up in a team with a wingman, her main concern is they're trying to manufacture a weakness that they can manipulate her with - not to mention once they agree on a working colleague, Pest-Control-sniper-turned-police-officer Connor, that he might be quite manipulative too... Released in two parts as Book One and Book Two, 'Death & The City' is the first instalment in the Tales Of The Deathrunners series.