Dead Lucky

A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK!
Shortlisted for The Gambling Book Awards 2025
Longlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2026

'Moving and shocking, and profoundly poetic' Mike Leigh, film director

'Almost unbearably compulsive . . . never less than rhapsodically funny' Sunday Times

'A wild ride' Financial Times

'Compelling' Daily Mail

'It's dark comedy meets toxic masculinity' The Times

'[A] sharp debut' The Independent

Think of being on your deathbed and thinking about all them nights where you said no, just 'cause you were a bit short on money. That's not how I wanted to live.

Jamie Fletcher should be the luckiest man in Manchester. His girlfriend Rebecca is out of his league, he has a best mate and drinking buddy in Trick, and he loves his job at a busy funeral home. Preparing the dead is not something Jamie takes lightly - whether it's choosing the right stockings for his old dinner lady, or playing the local butcher's favourite album to him before cremation.

But beneath his seemingly perfect life, Jamie has been keeping a big secret - one he reveals only to the dead. His gambling addiction has left him in eye-watering debt, and he's running out of ways to keep it hidden.

When Rebecca decides it's time for them to buy their first home together, he knows he has to do something to cover his tracks. Desperate, Jamie does what he knows best - he walks up to the bookies and places the biggest bet of his life.

How far will he go until his luck runs out?

Tonight could be the night that changes everything. You just never know.