East London: home of dog-tracks and boarding houses, winners and losers - mostly losers.
Harryboy is lowlife, scum. But if he leaves the track after the thirteenth race quids in, everyone'll say, there goes Harryboy Boas, King of the Track.
Trouble starts for Harryboy when the Deaners move into his Hackney boarding house. Quicker than he can place a bet on a dog, Harryboy finds himself the admired hero and evil genius of the family, particularly for the child Gregory. But Harryboy is also the victim of a secret guilt of his own, something unknown even to his doting sister, Debbie, ensconced in her nouveau riche Finchley mansion.
As the debts from his addictions grow, Harryboy sinks deeper into a criminal underworld where violence and revenge are the inevitable comeback to those who can't pay up.
