Andy Greenhalgh

Spencer's Risk Andy Greenhalgh

SPENCER'S RISK is a dark comic novel. Burnt out and broke, university Drama lecturer Spencer Leyton is a compulsive gambler, estranged from his wife and children and driving his career over a cliff. His some-time friend Justin invites him to a high-stakes poker game. ('Justin could sell snow to the Eskimos - literally. For some months he had sold cocaine to the Inuit community in Copenhagen'.) The game ends with Spencer owing £10,000 to Paula Malone, the head of a criminal gang. At work, Spencer is sexually obsessed with a wealthy and glamourous student called Eva. She commits plagiarism, an offence usually punished by expulsion, but bribes him with £3000 to keep quiet about it. Spencer has inside information about a football game, so he bets the £3000 on it, and that is when things really start to go wrong... Eva demands the leading role in the College Showcase Production, with disastrous results. ('Eva was not wearing the costume she had worn in the Dress Rehearsal. Eva was wearing a sporran. And very little else') Paula's deadline runs out. It looks like curtains for Spencer Leyton...