Sweet Gum

the long version

"Eugene Burnside joined The Firm before he left school, running drugs. Clever and ambitious, Eugene's now twenty-eight and it seems he's going places. He's come to the attention of the Faron brothers, and the Farons are The Firm." "And promotion can't come a moment too soon for Eugene if it means he no longer has to deal with middleman Mal Shifter and his two decrepit aunts. Or those dogs. They give him the creeps, the lot of them." "If Eugene's gangland career is going well, his personal life is not so sweet. The Burnside family moved to Wentworth Road when Eugene was a toddler. He still lives there, with his widowed mum, Gladys, and his sister Simone. The star of SweetHearts lap-dancing club, sis is doing all right too. Eugene is devoted to them both. He wished he felt the same about Simone's six-year-old son, Nero - aka the Minimonster - Eugene knows disturbed isn't half of it." "Now an unexpected evil haunts the alleys and arches of North London - a sado-sexual killer has begun his grisly work - and Eugene must fight to protect everything he holds dear, and everyone he loves."--BOOK JACKET.