THE NEW BOXER BOYS THRILLER
Clearing the Table
One slip up and his girl pays the price.
A brutal kidnapping thrusts Sly Dolan back into a world he thought he had under control.
Crystal is being held for a £20 million ransom.
There’s just one problem.
Until now, Sly didn’t even know he had a daughter.
Out 26 September 2026
Nick’s supplied synopsis confirms the ransom, Crystal’s identity and the family betrayal at the heart of the story.
Recognition
Award Winning Crime Fiction
CWA
Crime Writers’ Association member
WD
Writer’s Digest recognised
“Evocative, original, unfailingly precise and often humorous.”
Writer’s Digest eBook judges
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The Full Story
Clearing the Table
Family. Loyalty. Betrayal. And £20 million on the line.
Sly Dolan thought the worst of his old life was behind him.
Then Naomi returns.
More than twenty years earlier she was his lover while Sly and his brother Chuck were on the run in Spain. Now she brings news capable of turning his world upside down.
Her daughter Crystal has been kidnapped. The ransom is £20 million. And Crystal is Sly's daughter too.
Naomi has no way of paying. Sly may be a leading figure in the Boxer Boys organisation, but he doesn't control the gang's purse strings.
With the clock ticking, he finds a possible solution. It is dangerous, desperate and means betraying his own family while trying to outwit his dying father, recently released from prison on compassionate grounds.
Then Sly starts to realise the kidnappers may have another agenda entirely. And this time they aren't simply coming for the money.
They’re coming for everything.
The World
The Boxer Boys
Two East London families. More than fifty years of secrets, loyalty and betrayal.
At the heart of Nick Rippington’s crime fiction lies the Boxer Boys — a sprawling world surrounding the Dolan family, their friends, enemies, lovers and rivals.
Across generations, decisions made decades earlier return with consequences nobody can escape.
01
Crossing the Whitewash
02
Spark Out
03
Dying Seconds
04
Bare Lies
05
Clearing the Table
Praise
What They Say About Nick
“Dirty, visceral, occasionally violent and yet engaging and strangely compelling. The author has a great street voice.”
IndieBrag Award judges
“The plot is incredibly strong, the characters wonderfully drawn and Nick brings in the right amount of suspense without pushing it too far.”
Allie Morgan
“The book flows and rages like a Welsh mountain river to an end I never saw coming. Absolutely loved it.”
Susan Hampson, Books from Dusk Till Dawn
The Author
Meet Nick
From headlines to hard-boiled crime.
Before creating the Boxer Boys, Nick Rippington spent decades telling stories of a very different kind.
A national sports journalist, he spent ten years at the Daily Star and was the last Welsh Sports Editor of the News of the World.
Then his newspaper career ended with a scene that wouldn't have looked out of place in one of his novels.
Nick was on holiday with his wife and young daughter when the News of the World was closed. With his former offices designated a crime scene, he was never allowed back inside.
Instead, he met a colleague in a Wapping car park. Waiting for him were all the belongings he had left behind.
Stuffed into a black plastic bin bag.
Faced with an unexpected new chapter, Nick decided to write one of his own.
The Inner Circle
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