Author aims to lift readers out of their comfort zone.

Henry said: "People are really into triumph over adversity. They resort to the comfortable reading in times of crisis but it is just never ending. Do we really want a whole nation of comfortable people reading uplifting fiction?"

This latest novel is certainly uneasy. Voiced by psychologically unbalanced fantasist and pathological liar Matt Freeman, Henry had his work cut out keeping the book the right side of bleak.

He said: "It is very difficult to write a dark book. Just because you write a book with an unpleasant character, doesn't make it an unpleasant book. I didn't want to write a misery book."

The character of Matt called for more caution as Henry was keen to keep him from descending into gratuitous violence.

Henry said: "I thought he was quite funny. He is there to epitomise noughties London. He's very much a product of his time and place. He's meant to be an extreme, almost a caricature."

Matt's fixation with status symbols, from his Jaeger LeCoultre watch and Prada puffa jacket to his tables at L'Atelier and trophy PR girlfriend all highlight what upsets Henry most about modern society. Having spent number of years writing for Esquire magazine, he is well placed to comment on the finer details of the modern man's lifestyle choices.

Henry said: "It's about narcissistic obsession with products. It's about taking it to the extreme. Why are people so obsessed with stuff? I find it really worrying."
The other star of the story is London itself with Canary Wharf playing a major part. Readers will recognise many of the locations, but Henry was keen for it to be more than a mute backdrop.

He said: "Symbolically it hasn't been represented in fiction enough.
"In 2008 when the book is set, the whole financial meltdown was going on and people were saying it would go under. It didn't because it has become bigger than the sum of its parts. There is no way this place could collapse now."

Henry is associate tutor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He is currently collaborating with James Gurbett under a pseudonym on two new Jack Frost novels. He is also hoping to finish his next solo book.
As for Matt Freeman, we may not have heard the last of him.

Henry said: "I'm not sure I'm finished with him yet. I like the voice. It is almost always the unpleasant ones you get stuck with. The pleasant characters are neither as exciting or interesting."