A Sunday Times bestseller. Winner of the True Crime Awards - Best Audiobook 2024.
No criminal sparked as much fear and loathing among the public and law enforcement as underworld crime boss, Kenny Noye.
A man with a central role in some of the most high-profile crimes of a generation. From the £125 million (current value) Brink's Mat gold bullion raid to the death of Covert Police Operative John Fordham, and road rage victim Stephen Cameron, the multimillionaire villain became universally known as ‘Public Enemy: No 1'.
He had spent more than a third of his life in jail, but for two years, with near unlimited resources, and underworld connections around the globe, Noye played a game of hide and seek with Scotland Yard, MI5, INTERPOL, The FBI, and other national police forces as he fled the UK after the death of twenty-one-year-old Stephen Cameron in a road rage incident in May 1996.
From South America to Africa, from Cuba to Holland, France to Aruba, and beyond, Noye evaded capture despite the best efforts of some of the most powerful agencies and global security services. From dining with unwitting FBI officers on cruise ships to sitting on Castro's presidential seat in Havana, Noye's ‘Grand Tour on the Run' was as unbelievable as it was unprecedented. It was life on the run but not as we know it.
Back in the UK, the family of Stephen Cameron grieved under the weight of the life of impunity and privilege that Noye was covertly leading but the takedown was as dramatic and extraordinary as the secrets of Noye's life under the radar. The police would ultimately get their man.
His downfall would be placed at the door of an informant. Was it his lover or a gangland rival? Or was it the secret services? When the Spanish police ultimately swooped down with their English counterparts and arrested the affluent and charming ‘Mick the Builder' – they were armed with a secret weapon of their own – Stephen Cameron's fiancé.
With unique access to Noye, and key witnesses, the secret battle of wits between the underworld's ‘Governor' and law enforcement is reported in chilling detail.
The listener is given a 360' vista of one of the most expensive manhunts in British policing history. The authors deliver a compelling account of a major criminal, who shunned the effective discomfort of bunkers and safe houses to live a life on the run brimming with luxury, women, sun, sea, and Bacardi – and all while hiding in plain sight.