The Cut

The story

What it’s about

When a body is found beneath a ring-road underpass on the estate known as the Cut, most people want the case closed quickly. Ray Holder isn’t one of them.

Holder is a disgraced ex-detective, drinking his way through the days he walked away from the job. But when a young man from the estate turns up dead and the police settle on an easy answer, something doesn’t sit right. A missing button. Tyre marks that don’t match. A cigarette stub that shouldn’t be there.

The deeper Holder digs, the more the story begins to shift. Witnesses stay quiet. Doors close. And inside the station, pressure is building to wrap the case before it starts asking the wrong questions. What looks like a local murder begins to uncover something moving through the garages, lock-ups, and scrapyards of the estate — something organised, and watching.

Set in a fictionalised Birmingham of underpasses, lock-ups and wet tarmac, this is a slow-burn, lean-written crime novel — short chapters, no wasted scenes — following a flawed investigator drawn back into a world he tried to leave behind, where truth is buried, and justice comes at a cost.

Perfect for readers of character-driven crime, urban noir, and methodical investigations rooted in place.