Whatever Gets You Through the Night: 'Loud, bright, fast and funny - a perfect read' Guardian

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Description

Most people travel to Corfu to escape the real world for a couple of weeks and embrace the fantasy of olive trees, sandy beaches, and little fishing boats bobbing on sparkling blue water under a warm sun.

But not McIntyre. McIntyre's a fixer, specialising in getting people out of places they don't want to be with the minimum of fuss, publicity and violence. The job in Corfu should be easy - spring, Lauren, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, from the luxury compound of the tech billionaire, Julian Hepworth. Hepworth's young, handsome and charismatic - he's also a suspected paedophile, who, under the guise of training a girls' tennis team, has set up an abusive cult.

But as McIntyre sets up his operation in the exclusive north eastern corner of the island, things quickly start to slip out of his control. First, Lauren's father turns up, threatening to give the game away, and soon, McIntyre's having to contend with Albanian gangsters, Greek drug dealers, psychotic bodyguards, flat earthers and spoilt, wealthy teenagers looking for dangerous kicks. To further complicate things, Lauren's planning her own 'jailbreak'. It looks like things are going to be a lot harder than McIntyre's used to. Luckily, he has his team around him, a motley and colourful bunch, each with their own speciality.

The intertwined stories come together as the various characters all converge on a glamorous summer party at Hepworth's spectacular villa. Can McIntyre play the different factions off against each other and get Lauren to safety without things going horribly wrong

Whatever Gets You Through The Night is a crime novel with a thrillingly dark heart about the truths that lurk beneath the picture post card surface of a sunny Mediterranean idyll.

Reviews

Charlie Higson coming back to the world of adult thrillers is a major event. And what a comeback. Higson's new thriller will certainly get you through the night, though you may not get a lot of sleep... -- Mark Billingham
A hugely enjoyable sun-soaked thriller: hard-edged but warm, tense but funny, vividly ultra-modern and yet deliciously old-fashioned -- Christopher Brookmyre
Whatever Gets You Through the Night marks the return to adult fiction of Charlie Higson. Set on the sun-soaked island of Corfu, it dives into the darkness beneath the surface of the Mediterranean idyll. * Daily Mail *
'...the links between these components tighten in a richly satisfying way, until the book reaches an exhilarating extended climax at a spectacular party thrown by Hepworth to show everyone how great he is...' * Readers Digest *
This hectic, helter-skelter thriller is what his adult fans have been waiting for all this time * Sunday Times *
Rather more upbeat, and with far better weather, is Charlie Higson's return to crime fiction for grownups. . . It's loud, bright, fast and funny - a perfect read for a dreary month. -- Laura Wilson * The Guardian, Books of the Month *
Higson is a terrific thriller writer. . . Tense yet funny, too * The i *
A triumphant return to adult fare from the Young Bond author. -- Barry Forshaw * Financial Times *
[Higson's] exuberant novel pulls off the Hiaasen trick of absorbing dark themes yet remaining a hugely entertaining read * Sunday Times *
Higson, author of the Young Bond kids' books, makes a fresh, funny return to adult themes with this slick satirical thriller. * The Sun *
The chaotic and exciting denouement is brilliantly executed and funny... Higson is so good at what he does * Literary Review *
Delivers the atmosphere of a classic Sixties thriller in a contemporary setting, peering into the dark underbelly of a sunny Med holiday spot -- Books of the Year * Daily Express *

Author Bio

Charlie Higson started writing when he was ten years old. After university he was a singer and painter and decorator before he started writing for television. He went on to create and star in the hugely successful comedy series The Fast Show. He is the author of the bestselling Young Bond books and the incredibly successful horror series, The Enemy.

Charlie doesn't do Facebook, but you can tweet him @monstroso.