The Laundry Basket

Boxers, lovers, killers and online daters collide in Lewis’ murderous, drug-fuelled portrayal of one long weekend in south-east London. The Laundry Basket overflows with stories, both darkly comic and tragically tender, which are woven together with fiendish intricacy. As each piece of the puzzle slots into place, the bigger picture materialises with jaw-dropping breadth, exposing the workings of a corrupt organisation and the lives of those who intersect its dark machinations, flinging the reader along an emotional rollercoaster to a jubilant and gut-wrenching climax. Using a symbolic item of laundry to title each chapter, signifying the story’s contents. ‘Suspenders’ sees the protagonist of this particular tale exchanging explicit messages with girls via online dating sites, while ‘Strip’ sees three friends head off to a football game. The author explores each colourful character in depth. The Laundry Basket is the first novel in a collection of four, each being composed of thirty individual, standalone tales. The book spans a wide variety of topics, including drug abuse, sexual abuse, football hooliganism and corrupt organisations, but is primarily a crime thriller novel. G. M. C. Lewis, whose writing has been compared to Ted Hughes and Irvine Welsh, takes inspiration from Raymond Carver’s short stories, and Henry Miller, Lewis’ favourite author.