Underdogs

(, New edition)

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A lot of people know that the city of Seattle burned down in 1889. And it s common knowledge that when it was rebuilt, much of the old city remained, buried beneath the modern streets. But nobody really knows what s down there any more... Now a suspected psycho and the eight-year-old girl he s taken hostage during a bungled heist are about to find out, when they crash through the floor of an abandoned warehouse into a street no one has walked down for a hundred years.Pursued by an ex-Vietnam Tunnel Rat brought in by the Seattle PD - a man with one or two mental problems of his own - Hilton Badcock has no choice but to drag young Ali further into the underground maze in search of a way out. But the deeper they go into this strange, secret world, the weirder and more dangerous things get...

Reviews

A wonderfully exhilarating novel, combining a cinematic narrative drive with winning characters... A brilliantly imagined dreamlike subterranean landscape and winning characters distinguish Ryan's smart and genuinely creepy debut - THE SUNDAY TIMES

'Fantastic, head-spinning, surreal and hilarious by turns - GUARDIAN

Brilliantly realised - GQ

UNDERDOGS shows Ryan...utilising a fascinating setting with real aplomb and delivering something of a treat - THE TIMES

A hardboiled tour-de-force, I doubt whether there s going to be a better first crime novel this year - INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

A cracking chase thriller...Impressively, it is a first novel and...a young British writer takes on the Americans on their own turf - DAILY TELEGRAPH

A dazzling first novel set in the underground tunnels that lie beneath Seattle...[an] always unpredictable tale that combines the sheer giddy pace of a road movie with a touch of Lewis Carroll - TIME OUT

Author Bio

Rob Ryan was born in Liverpool in 1951 and took a Masters degree in Environmental Pollution Science at Brunel University, after which he lectured until the mid-1980s. His first articles as a journalist were published in The Face, Arena, American GQ and the Sunday Times. He joined the staff of the latter in 1990 as Deputy Travel Editor. In 1997 he left to help launch Conde Nast Traveller, before deciding to finish Underdogs. He is now a freelance writer and lives in London with his wife and three children.