Deadlines, the first in Chris Dunn's Contango series, traces the bid of raw young City reporter, Tom Stone, to crack the secret of a spectacular City swindle mounted by Wolf de Boys, the brilliant young financier. Tom has big problems: his relationship with his upwardly mobile girlfriend, under pressure from her snobbish parents, is dying a slow death; a mysterious caller, whose deep voice somehow sounds familiar, and who keeps dropping hints about de Boys; and his fight to keep his job on the Daily Standard. Writing the 'splash' is never easy in Fleet Street. Can Tom Stone crack his story and pull it off...? Fast-moving and exciting, Deadlines reveals the squalor of Fleet Street in the seventies, and the connection between the city and its scandals and the workings of the press.

In the cut-and-thrust world of banking, a private bank can be the most dangerous place in the City to work, especially if a very rich and determined family owns a quarter of it and decides things aren't being done to their liking. Joe, Head of Trading and Investment, a very private character with a colourful past, finds out to his cost that he stands in the way of the Maitlands. Once his colleague Gina is brutally raped and murdered, and Locke, Head of Personnel, is run down in the street, left for dead, he finds he cannot prevaricate any longer. Having always looked after number one, he now finds his loyalties to the head of the bank, plucky old Johnny, confuse his options. But what of his own safety? And what will happen to Emma, the first woman he has been able to open up to? A racy thriller set in the City, Domus, number two in the series, is packed full of action and intrigue.

An old Secret Service plan of twenty and more years seeks completion. And Joe, Chief Executive of Martins Bank is again called into the fray. With Russian infiltration of the Bank of England, and Martins on the brink of covert Russian takeover, the Service watches and controls from high up somewhere on the South Bank, planning every move of its field operatives with ruthless precision. But every plan has the potential to go wrong, especially with so much riding on the outcome - the security of Sterling and sovereignty of Britain. And every operative is at risk - from themselves, as well as outside forces. In Contango Chris Dunn brings together characters from his first and second thrillers, and maps out a London at once familiar and frightening. Handling the complex plot with consummate ease, he has the reader in his grip until every last thread has been stitched.

Joe is a disgraced big-shot City financier and former secret agent. Once extremely rich and successful, Joe is now broke, his reputation in tatters. With few options open to him, he survives from day to day by living on his wits and partnering the affluent ladies of the exclusive Liz Playfair Bridge Academy. His previous existence is a world away, hidden from all but a few. Now Joe receives an unwelcome message from the past. One last mission in exchange for his old life. But are the cards stacked against him? Left with little choice but to follow instructions, Joe makes his return to the dangerous twilight world of espionage, unaware that a chance encounter with a stranger could not only ruin the whole mission but also prove fatal.

In "Stir", number 7 in the "Contango" thriller series, finance, espionage and murder combine together again in their Dance of Death. A nonchalant Emma, leading figure in Contango, wanders away from an idyllic life in Italy with Joe - careless Emma! In London, on holiday, she meets former top City financier Blake, just released from jail after ex-colleague Commander framed him for fraud; Blake is bent on revenge and murder. Via Blake, Emma gets to know the bemused inmates of Gaston's house in Chelsea; rooming temporarily with their ambivalent landlord, they are trying to sort out their shattered lives. Former journalist Tom Stone is resident chez Gaston. Also present with Blake chez Gaston are Julia, bitter, failed Company Wife, traded in for the younger model, and unhappy Cressida, down from Cambridge with a bad degree. Conflicting destinies collide among Gaston's shocked refugees, reprising one of Contango's main themes - where is home? But reality in "Stir" is complex and changeable. Emma is trapped deep in espionage's wilderness of mirrors. She has been manoeuvred into romancing Blake by spy chief Annie, so that British Intelligence can get closer to Commander. The treacherous Commander is a key link with forces deeply hostile to the USA. In a global duel of bluff, deception and cruel calculation, Annie must read Commander exactly right to avert catastrophe. She needs all the intelligence she can gather, human anguish notwithstanding. The action boils to a climax as New York and the dollar are attacked. Blake stalks Commander throughout the Square Mile, only to encounter a remarkable twist in the tale. Likewise Emma.

As the US army storms into Baghdad, Saddam Hussein's treasure leaves town secretly in lorry convoy, en route for Europe's banks across the hills by night. Awaiting the hoard's arrival eagerly in Venice is a motley bunch of conmen, hoods, card sharps and inevitably, a London stock-broker, Patrick the Beautiful. In tow, playing his bridge innocently each night with the gang, is Joe, former British Intelligence agent and ex-banking supremo. Strenuous efforts are made to blackmail Joe, master of the adroit side-step, into joining the heist. But Joe has other ideas. Meanwhile in London, British Intelligence supremo Annie is embroiled in the Foreign Office's attempt to rig the succession at the European Central Bank. To her chagrin, she discovers that her preferred but incompetent choice to supervise intelligence in Venice has very different ideas about loyalty and service. With massive consequences for Annie's career as the in-house betrayal begins..."Foible", no. 8 in the "Contango" espionage thriller series, boils to an astonishing climax as the Curse of Saddam's Gold strikes simultaneously - and tragically - in London and Venice.

Joe is back. A member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England no less. Having taken up Emma's offer of sanctuary in Pelham Crescent when under threat, is he still in danger? He quickly realises he is again operational and that his position is highly precarious - who can he trust? Annie and Gamma are in play, but is Joe on their side? And will ex-Governor Stobart discover his past with Perdita and Pugh Park? What of Rivers Pugh? Whilst for those with eyes to see the financial markets foretell doom, the financial institutions sail on, ignoring the danger signals. But who is pulling the strings? In the final novel on the "Contango" series, Chris Dunn weaves the characters and plots with consummate mastery bringing all the threads to a final hair-raising conclusion.

Annie and Gamma join forces with Annie undercover as a teacher at Gabby's, Britain's leading private school for young ladies. Tom Stone down on his luck again, but still writing the Needler, encounters an old foe in de Boys, and actively assists in the exp...

Quondam sees the return of Joe, operational again, and former lives converging with old friends and enemies reappearing. Relationships twist and turn. Tom Stone and Emma? Joes and Emma? Annie and Gamma plotting to protect UK interests. The "Financial Chronicle"...

Two ambitious women, Bank of England Deputy Governor Penny Scrope and Bank MPC member Jane Coeur, are running for the Square Mile's top job - Governor of the Bank of England. They fell out at school years ago over the same man. By an apparent twist of fate...

In the cut-and-thrust world of banking, a private bank can be the most dangerous place in the City to work, especially if a very rich and determined family own a quarter of it and decide things aren't being done to their liking.Joe, head of Trading and Investment, a very private character with a colourful past, finds out to his cost that he stands in the way of the Maitlands. Once his colleague Gina is brutally raped and murdered, and Locke, Head of Personnel, is run down in the street, left for dead, he finds he cannot prevaricate any longer. Having always looked after number one, he now finds his loyalties to the head of the bank, plucky old Johnny, confuse his options. But what of his own safety? And what will happen to Emma, the first woman he has been able to open up to?A racy thriller set in the City, DOMUS number two in the series, is packed full of action and intrigue.'The books offer a marvellous romp through the worlds of journalism, espionage and finance... The pace and spirit of the novels are superb... The struggle between the invading forces and the staid gentility of the British establishment gives the novels much of their action... It is the underlying theme of class conflict that truly drives [the series]. The attempts by the characters to break free from Britian's predetermined pigeonholes and alter their destinies give the novels their deeper grip... Roll the sequel.' The Wall Street Journal Europe

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