The Confession Club

Twelve years ago, seven experienced criminals were brought together for a job that went spectacularly wrong. Somehow, they all got what they came for, and none of them went to prison. The experience forged an unlikely bond, and they have been meeting in a private room above a London pub ever since. The arrangement depends on an understanding that what is shared stays among them.

A hitman, a safecracker, an armed robber, a drug dealer, a heavy, a gang boss and a fixer. Each operates in a different corner of the criminal underworld, but once a month they become the Confession Club, sharing stories of jobs, betrayals, old scores and crimes nobody has ever connected to them. Between them, they know an extraordinary amount that was never meant to become common knowledge.

Then two of them die. The deaths appear unrelated: an occupational hazard in one case, an old grudge in the other. In their line of work, neither explanation is particularly surprising. But as the remaining members compare what they know, uncomfortable connections emerge between seemingly independent criminal operations. Someone has been manipulating events for years, and the club may have played a part without ever realising it.

Suspicion spreads, old loyalties fracture, and the surviving members discover that being experienced criminals does not necessarily prepare them for becoming targets. The stories that once bound them together can now be read differently. Knowing what the others are capable of is useful, but it also makes reassurance difficult to accept.

For one professional killer, survival means discovering who is behind the murders before he becomes the next victim. Whoever is responsible has made a dangerous choice of enemies. The people being eliminated have spent their careers navigating violence, deception and risk—and they are exceptionally good at what they do.