The King's Shilling

Paul Boyd has a hole in his head.

At least, that’s how he sees it.

An absence, a lack of clarity and definition, the outline of an elusive, spectral resolution, that could help him come to terms with his past and perhaps his future, too. With what he felt for Sarah Hartley and what she felt for him. What they meant to each other.

As children, they were inseparable.

But then she was sent to Switzerland and he went to prison.

Almost 20 years later, she’s not called Sarah Hartley anymore and he’s no longer Paul Boyd.

But Sarah’s missing. And Paul can’t stay away from what used to be his home any longer.

But going back means facing up to history. The history of two families, perhaps three, where the search for some kind of truth, and for Sarah, means confronting an endless litany of lies and deceit, violence and brutality.

From West Yorkshire to Amsterdam via the South of France, Paul sets off in pursuit of the young woman who meant everything to him. Until she disappeared, leaving nothing but a hole in his head, that perhaps would be better left unfilled.