The Lord of Billionaires' Row — Matthew Spencer

The Lord of Billionaires' Row: 138,000 words. Available in Kindle E-book and Paperback.

A page-turning thriller with a human side -and a real Devil's Bargain in the tail, The Lord of Billionaires' Row shows how powerful criminal gangs (in this case, in both China and the United Kingdom) can be at risk from the fallout from even a single murder and explores the brutal lengths they will go to to try and stop this happening. The criminal gangs are "The Firm" in London and "The Faction" in China. The Chinese Communist Party ultimately being an umbrella organisation for any predator who wants to control the country, The Faction is embedded within the CCP but does not yet have full control of party and country: something which it plans to change! The two gangs work together to achieve both mutual goals and separate ones, leading to extreme tension in the long run.

Initially, the story is seen through the eyes of Malcolm Oats, a London gangster's son who doesn't even want to start going bent and Charles Ren, a Chengdu businessman who gives Chinese people an alternative to insanely risky "property-based investment products" and who also practices meditation and formal exercise in public parks (which is very dangerous in Communist China). Intertwining conspiracies unfold and unravel in Britain, China and, in passing, Italy.

Malcolm's father, Ron, who wants to go straight but is too integral to the business of The Firm to be allowed to do so, is commissioned to steal numerous priceless Chinese artworks from museums and collections in Britain, to be used to enhance the prestige and therefore the power of The Faction in China. Ron tries to make it bearable to do a job he really isn't keen on, by being creative about how he undertakes the necessary robberies. This makes The Firm's contact man in London paranoid about Ron -and therefore The Firm- being dangerously clever and too difficult to control, leading him to set in motion a chain of events, which threatens the governments of both Britain and China.

Malcolm, meanwhile, gets entangled, (by squatting in the wrong millionaire's mansion in Virginia Water: one that belonged to Charles Ren) with a Chinese commando team in Britain to steal technological secrets connected with offshore energy resources, so that The Faction's rivals in China, those still loyal to the General Secretary, can improve their own prestige and strengthen their position enough to be able to act against The Faction.

Malcolm is aided by Ruth Parker, a zoologist with, as it turns out, and iron will and nerves of steel. She doesn't intend to fall in love with a 17 year old youth: Malcolm knows this, but chooses to play the long game on his older brother's advice.

Democracy is threatened in Britain by all this, but in China, is there just a gleam of light inherent in the fact that the two most powerful anti-democratic forces are at each other's throats?

The E-book and paperback both conclude with a free sample chapter from the author's forthcoming novel: "The Farshoreman".