Devil Take The Hindmost

Winner of the Dundee International Book Prize

At £10,000, the Dundee International Book Prize is the richest prize for an unpubished novel in the UK.

This year's winning title, Devil Take the Hindmost, is a gripping historical noir set during the amphetamine-fuelled craze for velodrome racing which took London by storm in the late 1920s.

Into this world stumbles Paul, a bewildered Scottish farmboy running away from home. Powerfully built with a fierce passion for cycling, he is taken under the wing of Silas, a local loan shark, and from there enters a world he is ill-equipped to survive.

As the races get harder, the bets get larger, and the terrifying Mr Morton starts to take an interest in Paul's career. For fans of Peaky Blinders and Brighton Rock, Devil Take the Hindmost is a thrilling ride through a historical London that is rarely visited.

'A Graham Greene-esque noir with suspense and peril. I loved the cut back and forth of the time line to create drama…" Denise Mina, author and judge, Dundee International Book Prize

'Intriguing, thrilling and brilliantly realised. A fantastic debut.' Danny Wallace, author, broadcaster and judge, Dundee International Book Prize

'Perhaps the first cycling noir I've ever read, Martin Cathcart's excellent debut, Devil Take the Hindmost, is filled with early twentieth century period detail and a slow-burn sense of menace that builds over the course of its twisting plot. But a good plot is nothing without character, and in the innocent abroad Paul and his new 'friend' Silas, we have one of the finest double acts I've read in a while. Devil Take the Hindmost is an assured first novel from an author who deserves to overtake the competition and race to take first place.' Russel D McLean, author of the J McNee detective series