Welcome to the Game

Henderson, a host of the BBC’s Books That Made Britain series, debuts with a tense crime thriller set in Detroit. Englishman Spencer Burnham has left his home country and his successful career as a rally car driver and moved his family to the Motor City, his wife Marielle’s hometown, where he operates a dealership specializing in foreign cars. When Marielle dies in a car accident, he’s left the widowed father of seven-year-old Abby, and serious money troubles place his business on the verge of bankruptcy. With the walls closing in and his alcoholism risking his custody of Abby, Burnham takes a desperate gamble. His superior driving skills and intimate knowledge of the city’s streets have attracted the attention of Dominic McGrath, a vicious money launderer. Burnham accepts a job offer to drive for McGrath’s operation, replacing a man executed on McGrath’s orders after being suspected of being a snitch. Henderson makes his flawed and troubled lead easy to sympathize with, and fleshed-out characters match satisfying plot twists. Fans of the Fast & Furious movie franchise will be riveted. Agent: Clementine Little, Coward & Little (U.K.). (Nov.)