Genre: Fiction
Published: 15 July 2010
Publisher: Serpent's Tail

Bank of the Black Sheep

by Robert Lewis


A mordantly funny conclusion to Lewis’ critically acclaimed Robin Llewellyn Trilogy:

Ex-private investigator Robin Llewellyn wakes up handcuffed to a hospice bed, full of morphine and with a fading memory as the cancer closes in. Unfortunately, bad detectives leave a lot of loose ends.

Prosecuted for crimes he can’t remember committing and pursued by cops and criminals alike for deals he has no recollection of doing, he discovers that waiting in the wilds of West Wales is a hidden fortune of the sort that men will kill for.

So Llewellyn’s last case sees him in a race against the reaper to score the final haul – and find out if he is the villain he appears to be.

"Charles Bukowski meets Raymond Chandler in this meandering yet keenly plotted tale of a man at the bottom with nowhere to go but down. Sad, darkly funny and quite, quite brilliant." - Peter Guttridge
"A crime caper with echoes of Ealing comedy, shades of James Ellroy and even a touch of Samuel Beckett... a compelling concoction, laced with dark humour and strangely life-affirming. Robin can't go on, but he does, and we go on rooting for him right to the very end." - Independent on Sunday
Robert Lewis' splendid creation Robin Llywelyn is a private eye of unsurpassed disintegration... a cracker of a novel... fizzy dialogue, superbly edgy writing and terrific humour." - The Times
"Dark, bleak, sordid, sinister and very, very funny... Wonderfully poignant." - Guardian
"Llewellyn is the real deal... Lewis' coruscating analysis of underclass, underfoot, outcast Britain is uncomfortable and challenging" - Financial Times
"Bleakly funny, with a spectacularly flawed hero and a peculiarly uplifting (if gory) ending, BANK OF THE BLACK SHEEP is a fitting conclusion to a sequence best described as extreme noir." - Laura Wilson, Guardian
"The author's third novel fires on all cylinders." - Publishers Weekly
"Relentlessly bleak, mordantly funny, and occasionally noirish, Lewis writes brilliantly." - Booklist

Other Books by Robert Lewis