Set in the early Eighties against the backdrop of Thatcherite rule and the violent clashes between police and miners, The Licensee dives back into the Glasgow underworld as a new era is ushered in. Heroin is rife. Dealers are getting rich in a hurry and some law-enforcement officers are tempted by easy cash to turn a blind eye. Johnny McGinty, the tough but likeable small-time crook in No Smoke, has graduated to the big time and is now the heavy man for nouveau-riche drug lord Pat McGowan. Competition between rival drug dealers is fierce and McGowan thinks nothing of torching a family home, occupants included, in order to frame his opposition and gain a monopoly of the market. This is a new and volatile breed of gangster. Honour amongst thieves has given way to brutality, greed and the supergrass. In a novel that bristles with dark humour and darker deeds, Collins's ear for street dialogue never falters. The Licensee establishes Collins at the forefront of British crime writing.