My new thriller, The Trashman, is launching 25 August.
It’s a global, cinematic Hollywood thriller with a twist of sharp political satire. Luxury noir. Its tagline:
In a throwaway world, The Trashman is king.
The book flits between LA, Paris and Milan. It’s for readers who loved the world of The White Lotus, the sun-drenched menace of Ripley, and the poisoned glamour of House of Gucci.
Interwoven into a modern love story, it’s about image, art, fame and lust, the mechanics of “success”, and working out your own best self and place. It’s fast, satirically funny (you can read the pitch below, or just pre-order it here) – but I’d like to share how it follows on from my previous book, which seems so very different.
The commodification of love, murder, wellness and warfare—all that stuff, I guess—gives a sort of continuity to it:
That previous book, along comes a war, coming from a place of shock and solidarity—my response to the invasion of Ukraine, and how that horror is experienced by civilians—both in Ukraine itself (thanks to Bohdana Bun’s beautiful photography!) and further away, where we watch on screens across the globe. It bears witness, and all its profits go to the Come Back Alive Foundation.
The Trashman comes from a different angle—but it certainly spotlights similar horror. It follows a digital trail from the hills of Bel Air, the Parisian clubs, to the lakeside glamour of Como, the runways of Milan, the crime-tech intelligence hub of The Hague.
We ‘re in an age where toxic, entitled power pretends to be anti-elitist, where spectacle overwhelms substance, and outrage out-appeals truth. In this era of the evil clown Trump and performative politics as click-bait, reality feels increasingly staged—curated, monetised, weaponised.
The Trashman is (in part) my response to all that. A story about love, lust and success, and finding your true self in a society at war with itself, where everything, and everyone—right to the very top—seems disposable.
It asks: In a throwaway world, how disposable are you?
along comes a war and The Trashman both bear witness. Their underlying concerns overlap: what happens to our truth when power and image dictate our lives, and what do we become if we let them?
— Freddie
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Here’s The Trashman‘s pitch:
In a throwaway world, The Trashman is king.
A global, cinematic Hollywood thriller with a twist of sharp political satire.
When ambitious young fashion designer Zoe arrives at a celebrity Malibu mansion to present her work, she finds her clients’ bodies instead—curated with the artistry, the cold precision of a “Collection”. In the chaos that follows, she meets Jez, a podcaster chasing his viral breakthrough. Attraction sparks among the horror.
Luxury noir with a body count…
As the Trashman goes global, each new Collection—Paris, Como, Milan—becomes more lethally elegant than the last, featuring more high-profile victims, taunts and cryptic clues.
And Zoe keeps appearing near the scenes. Is she muse, victim, or accomplice?
With ICE raids inflaming a polarised America, and investigators from the LASD and Europol closing in across two continents, Jez faces an impossible choice: expose the woman he loves and secure his fame, or protect her and risk everything.
Zoe’s own reckoning is no less brutal—can she build a career on looking away?
Haut-Couture Horror…
This visceral, darkly satirical psychological thriller follows a digital trail from the hills of Bel Air and the Parisian clubs to the lakeside glamour of Como, the runways of Milan, and the crime-tech intelligence hub of The Hague. It’s for readers who loved the world of The White Lotus, the sun-drenched menace of Ripley, and the poisoned glamour of House of Gucci.
A story about love, lust and success, and finding your true self in a society at war with itself, where everything, and everyone—right to the very top—seems disposable.
In a throwaway world, how disposable are you?
