Logline
Forced home from the Far East penniless, a disgraced London estate agent finds unexpected success running an exclusive brothel in an affluent suburb — where everyone has secrets and discretion is the most valuable commodity of all.
Synopsis
Nathan Gallagher is a charming, fast-talking London estate agent — slippery, self-serving, and very good at his job. When a property deal in the Far East goes spectacularly wrong, Nathan returns to London broke, homeless, and in desperate need of a plan.
The plan arrives in the form of Lucy, a Thai businesswoman running a discreet escort operation out of a suburban flat Nathan found for her. Now she needs more space, better management, and someone who knows the property market. Nathan, who has no moral objections and no better options, takes the job.
Into his orbit comes Simon White — an earnest, scripture-quoting village bobby newly transferred to the Metropolitan Vice Unit, determined to clean up London's streets in God's name. As Nathan transforms a modest operation into a members-only leisure club — with a clientele that includes the powerful, the prominent and the peculiar — White closes in, convinced he has his man.
When White finally catches Nathan in the act, he discovers that the man on the other end of the leash is someone rather closer to home. The charges are dropped, White is transferred to the Outer Hebrides, and Nathan reflects that in property, as in life, location really is everything.
Key themes
Hypocrisy and respectability — the gap between how London presents itself and what actually goes on behind closed doors.
Reinvention — a man who loses everything discovers that his most marketable skills were never on his CV.
Class and discretion — in an affluent suburb, everyone has something to hide, and the man who keeps secrets holds all the cards.
Moral certainty meets moral complexity — a crusading copper who quotes scripture collides with a world that refuses to be black and white.