The Opener

Edward Carter is a contract opener. He’ll open anything for the right price. He chooses his contracts carefully and he’s not too fussed who he works for as long as he gets paid. Some of London’s biggest and ruthless crime organisations approach him to get things done. He has strict rules of work. He gets half his fee for opening and then the remainder within a few days of the job. He neither cares nor is interested in what the thieves are after; he simply opens the premises and leaves. His reputation goes before him; he is very selective over the offers he gets. He lives off the grid; no-one knows who is. He has no phone, no car, no driving licence. He pays no tax nor National Insurance. In short, he doesn’t exist. He simply turns up, does his job and leaves.

Edward Carter lives in his little bubble. With the exception of Marta De Luca, he has no friends . He unofficially takes care of De Luca and the street girls of Wormwood Scrubs. In sorting out some thugs who try to take over the girls, he comes across the beautiful but slightly wayward Janice Deveaux. He grows very close to Deveaux and he decides enough is enough. There is just one last job before he re-invents himself again, this time with her by his side. This last job goes wrong when he realises that the thieves are stealing from each other and he doesn’t get paid.

He is always one step ahead of the police but can he stay that way as the net closes? Can Detective Inspector Laura Sawyers finally begin to make progress on identifying the opener? Read how easily Janice Deveaux gets sucked into the underworld where the casual taking of a human life is not something over which to lose sleep.

Follow the man known as Jasper through the harsh reality of London’s dark and violent underbelly of prostitution, drug dealing, theft and casual killings.

Does he get caught? Will it all go terribly wrong? Will Laura Sawyers and her team finally get their man?

This is the first of a two-part series.