Pay your debts. Protect your family. Never cross a loan shark.

This blisteringly original crime thriller and exciting debut smashes Mr Inbetween, Monkey Grip and Animal Kingdom into a gutter opera on the vicious, bent and drug-laden streets of Newcastle - written by the Pushcart nominated writer and 2009 shark attack survivor

Vincent Silk is back in the decaying maw of Australia's Steel City after losing everything – his money, his self-respect and his friends and family. He wants to make amends but first he has to pay back an unhinged loan shark. With no way to make good, Vincent is forced to take on a brutal new role: working as an enforcer, a teeth kicker, collecting debts in a town where everyone owes someone something.

Vincent is big and imposing, so he should be a natural at hunting down late-payers, but he hates the violence and his conscience weighs heavy. Every knock on a door tests his resolve, especially when his next target turns out to be Henrietta, the woman who once saved him from an OD - and the person he's in love with. Vincent wants to protect her, and he knows running isn't an option. The shark would come for their families, including Vincent's younger brother, Ray.

Vincent and Ray have a complicated past, scarred by a horrific car accident that made Ray an amputee and left Vincent with a metal plate in his head. As Ray spirals into his own trouble, Vincent enacts a brash plan to solve everyone's problems ...

Until it all unravels, and he's left with an impossible choice.

PRAISE

'A stunning thriller that grips from the opening page to its heart-stopping finale. The best crime novel I've read in years' Mark Brandi, bestselling author of Wimmera, The Rip, The Others and Southern Aurora.

'Orgias's portrayal of Vincent and the underbelly of 1990s Newcastle is masterful: brave and clear-eyed enough to show the tough realities, but tender and full of heart. It's also a ripping drugs-and-crime story' Malcolm Knox, bestselling author of The First Friend

'A blistering, breathtaking gut punch of a novel' Kate Horan, bestselling author of The Inheritance and On the Edge

'By turns brutal and tender, Teeth Kicker finds humanity in the underworld and delivers a cracking thriller along the way' Gabriel Bergmoser, bestselling author of The Hunted, The Inheritance, The Hitchhiker and The Caretaker

'A brilliant debut – brutal, propulsive, and proof that our desire to love and be loved can outlast anything' Mitch Jennings, author of the award-winning A Town Called Treachery

'A masterclass in tension ... Original, gripping and impossible to shake' Shannon Kelly-White, author of Billie King