The Folksinger 2013

Book excerpt: Vlad Hugg is a popular new singer, young, dashing romantic, with a nice line in deprecating chat and a handsome, weather burned face. He has been travelling, he says, out 'on the road', seeing life and the world, writing about it and singing about it. He is an egrossing hero. So who wants him dead? Melia's cousin, Liv, writing his authorised biography, is equally baffled by the gaps in his story and worried by the threats on his life. But that's not all: there's also the rumours about the young man, the allegations that he caused - either directly or indirectly - the deaths of about a dozen people. How is that even possible? He comes from Swinton, for goodness sake, a small, dowdy suburb in Salford, the old, run-down centre of the North West of England. He's a slightly boring, nondescript youth from a predictable background: how could anyone think the stories are true? Melia, of course, has her own reasons for trying to delve in and find the truth. Her boss, and British Security, thinks Vlad Hugg is a spy!