A THE TIMES BEST CRIME BOOK OF 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ILP JOHN CREASEY FIRST NOVEL DAGGER 2025

‘Extraordinary . . . both a madcap crime caper and a savage state-of-the-nation novel . . . Anders Lustgarten writes like a man possessed: bursting with energy’ The Times

An electrifying wild ride of a debut novel from award-winning playwright Anders Lustgarten

Meet Cherry, a bandit queen on the run, driving a pink soft-top convertible through the badlands of South-East England. She’s never felt more Thelma & Louise in her life – except there are three of them in the car and one of them is dead.

How did a head nurse and mother of two end up driving a handcuffed policeman and the corpse of a murdered refugee on a journey to find justice? Pursued by a racist, roid-raged, shaven-headed officer of the law – not to mention by her husband and daughter – what else can a woman with a conscience do in modern Britain?

Thrilling, radical and darkly comedic, Anders Lustgarten’s open-hearted storm of a book explores pressing political concerns with clear-sightedness and holds a mirror up to contemporary Britain.

‘An irreverent, tragicomic tour de force as absurd and as urgent as hope . . . Lustgarten’s novel is comedy as weapon and deep moral inquiry’ Guardian

Read a sample here