Former Government Investigator and Bromley Born and Bred Sté McCoinnich Reveals Fictionalised Tale of Inland Revenue’s Secretive BIO Unit.
Tubal McArthur, fledgling investigator at the BIO has landed the case of a lifetime. It will take him from squalid council flats to corruption at the top of the Inland Revenue and a mysterious ‘fixer’ for Middle Eastern princes and millionaires. Accompanied by the outwardly demure but highly efficient Felicity Francis, Tubal must locate the elusive Patrick Sweeney, the mastermind facilitating a massive fraud in Surrey Docks, London. Fast cars, loose women, and Tubal’s close encounter with armed police lead them on to investigate the identity of ‘Revenue Man’; a senior officer accepting prostitutes, and all expenses paid foreign travel in exchange for quashing tax liabilities for the rich and powerful.
An irreverent look, set in the 1980s, at the Inland Revenue’s Boards Investigation Office. Tubal McArthur is a young man, of questionable upbringing, in a career that belies that of his ancestry. A career that leads him on a switchback ride in a clandestine world of catching criminals and enjoying the tremendous esprit de corps of playing fast and loose alongside a skilled and highly effective group of misfits
Sté McCoinnich was born and raised in South London. He has over 30 years’ experience as a criminal investigator for various government organisations. His first novel, Revenue Man, is an amusing, fictional account set within the BIO, the Inland Revenue internal corruption unit, during the 1980s. He now lives in East Sussex.
Sté explains: “My original plan was to write a non-fiction book about the Inland Revenue’s Boards Investigation Office (BIO) since its inception in 1929. I had already gathered newspaper cuttings from the 1920s and 1930s detailing cases. I also discovered that, during World War 2, the small team operating then was based in Chippenham, Wiltshire where the Chief Investigating Officer remained after the war. When I approached the National Archives to research any available material from WW2 to the 1990s, nothing could be found. My fear was that BIO had been wiped from history and the people who worked there, including some who became my life-long friends, deserve to have their contribution to protecting UK Plc heard. So, I decided to write from the perspective of my own recollections of the people and cases I encountered during my 14 years with BIO. Added to this I had knowledge, backed up by newspaper reports, of the biggest corruption case ever to hit the Inland Revenue. This was put in the melting pot with an overseas corruption case that I had worked on in another law enforcement organisation, to produce a totally fictitious case for my protagonist, Tubal McArthur, to investigate.
Like Tubal I was the youngest Executive Officer grade Investigating Officer at BIO and my own upbringing, albeit fictionalised and reimagined in my book, provided elements of Tubal’s history. What I have written includes some facts though, the amazing camaraderie, penchant for pubs and regular late-night curries. A real band of brothers and sisters.”
https://stemccoinnich.com/
RELEASE DATE: 28/03/2025 ISBN: 9781836281986 Price: £10.99
Find out more at https://troubador.co.uk/bookshop/crime-and-thrillers/revenue-man
