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Avengement
Compelled to This long-suffering sociopath must have revenge.It’s 1996 and recently graduated Dyson Devereux is consumed by vengeance. Job hunting, finding somewhere to live and girlfriend commitments be damned. Retribution can’t wait a moment longer.
He is swapping the migrant-ridden city for his bucolic hometown. There he plans to track down his childhood nemeses—arrogant Doctor Trenton and the two loathsome old bags.
Achieving the accolade of serial killer will be fraught with risk. Dyson might be Machiavelli incarnate, but he possesses youth’s recklessness.
This suspenseful crime novel featuring a politically incorrect protagonist adeptly captures the era’s zeitgeist.
Start reading today.
‘Laced with dry wit throughout. Dark humour that’ll have you roaring with laughter …’ – DLS Reviews
‘If your dragons are in the shape of cultural and political correctness, slavish worship of diversity, and hand-wringing liberal views, Portman is the man to slay them’ – Fully Booked
He is swapping the migrant-ridden city for his bucolic hometown. There he plans to track down his childhood nemeses—arrogant Doctor Trenton and the two loathsome old bags.
Achieving the accolade of serial killer will be fraught with risk. Dyson might be Machiavelli incarnate, but he possesses youth’s recklessness.
This suspenseful crime novel featuring a politically incorrect protagonist adeptly captures the era’s zeitgeist.
Start reading today.
‘Laced with dry wit throughout. Dark humour that’ll have you roaring with laughter …’ – DLS Reviews
‘If your dragons are in the shape of cultural and political correctness, slavish worship of diversity, and hand-wringing liberal views, Portman is the man to slay them’ – Fully Booked
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 11, 2025
About the author
Guy Portman
18 books316 followersAs far back as anyone can remember Guy has been an introverted creature, with an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and a sardonic sense of humour.
Throughout a childhood in London spent watching cold war propaganda gems such as He Man, an adolescence confined in various institutions, and a career that has encompassed stints in academic research and the sports industry, Guy has been a keen if somewhat cynical social observer.
Humour of the sardonic variety is a recurring theme in Guy’s writing. His first novel, 'Charles Middleworth', is an insightful tale of the unexpected. Like the author, the protagonist in 'The Necropolis Series' is a darkly humorous individual – though, unlike the author, he is a sociopath.
Guy is a dedicated blogger and an avid reader. Reviews of the books he has read can be found in the review section of his blog.
Click on my website link below and get 'Mangetout' for FREE.
These shocking and suspenseful stories are a must read.
Throughout a childhood in London spent watching cold war propaganda gems such as He Man, an adolescence confined in various institutions, and a career that has encompassed stints in academic research and the sports industry, Guy has been a keen if somewhat cynical social observer.
Humour of the sardonic variety is a recurring theme in Guy’s writing. His first novel, 'Charles Middleworth', is an insightful tale of the unexpected. Like the author, the protagonist in 'The Necropolis Series' is a darkly humorous individual – though, unlike the author, he is a sociopath.
Guy is a dedicated blogger and an avid reader. Reviews of the books he has read can be found in the review section of his blog.
Click on my website link below and get 'Mangetout' for FREE.
These shocking and suspenseful stories are a must read.
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 14, 2025
We rejoin our not-so-friendly neighbourhood sociopath Dyson Devereux in a London pub, where he is celebrating the end of his university exams with fellow undergraduates. He is miles away in his head, however:
"I left Tollington nearly eight years ago and have only been back twice. Aunt didn't want me there after I pushed her daughter, Beatrice, off a cliff. It was considered to be an accident, but Aunt was suspicious. In my mind's eye, I see Beatrice plummeting into the mist. This is my favorite memory.
"Ha, haha."
Dyson needs to get a job, but before that rather tedious necessity, there are three more names on his to-kill list, and they are all in the Dorset town of Tollington. Top Trumps is the lecherous Dr Trenton who, years earlier had seduced Mrs Devereaux (while her husband was dying of AIDS) and filled her so full of tranquilisers that she lapsed into a fatal coma. Two elderly twins - Virulent Veronica and Conniving Clementine - who run a tea-shop must also die because of their persistent taunting of the younger Dyson, publicly stigmatising him for his father's alleged sins. After eventually passing his driving test, Dyson tours local used car yards for his first set of wheels. He has one main criterion. The car's boot must be wide enough to accommodate the Samurai sword - honed to razor sharpness - which hangs on he bedroom wall of his student digs.
Dyson is devastated to learn that one of the malignant twins has thwarted his vengeance by dying of old age. Undaunted, he executes her sister and returns to London where, after befriending the daughter of an Indian billionaire. he is invited to an the launch party of an art exhibition by a young man called Sebastian
'A grim-faced waiter, wearing a bright green tail coat, materializes next to me.He is holding out a plate.
"Tuna balls with cream cheese and red onion."
I help myself to one. It tastes piquant. The exhibition's art is being put to shame by the seafood Hors d'Oevre. Sebastian is devoid of artistic talent. However, he has one thing going for him. His German mother is an heiress to a pharmaceutical fortune.'
After a few false starts, Dyson finally puts the Samurai sword to use in the manner for which it was designed, and his trilogy of vengeance seems to be over. Despite some interest from the police, he has covered his tracks so carefully that the two most recent crimes cannot be pinned on him, and he begins his working career in the less-than-exotic offices of a London borough council in their Green Spaces Department. This segues fairly neatly into the first book - in publishing chronology - of the series, Necropolis, which I reviewed in 2014 (click here to read)
Satire in Britain is, in my view, in a fairly bad way at the moment. Like comedy, it seems to have just been absorbed into the prevailing metropolitan liberal mindset, which only considers the political right as a legitimate target. Private Eye is a shadow of its former self, and I gave up on HIGNFY years ago. Rare is the journalist who challenges the prevailing Islingtonian doctrines through comedy, Rod Liddle being perhaps one exception. I can't think of anyone who writes quite like Guy Portman. Jonathan Meades is similarly trenchant and iconoclastic, but even his last novel had to be crowd-funded, as no publisher would touch it. If your dragons are in the shape of cultural and political correctness, slavish worship of diversity, and hand-wringing liberal views, Portman is the man to slay them.
"I left Tollington nearly eight years ago and have only been back twice. Aunt didn't want me there after I pushed her daughter, Beatrice, off a cliff. It was considered to be an accident, but Aunt was suspicious. In my mind's eye, I see Beatrice plummeting into the mist. This is my favorite memory.
"Ha, haha."
Dyson needs to get a job, but before that rather tedious necessity, there are three more names on his to-kill list, and they are all in the Dorset town of Tollington. Top Trumps is the lecherous Dr Trenton who, years earlier had seduced Mrs Devereaux (while her husband was dying of AIDS) and filled her so full of tranquilisers that she lapsed into a fatal coma. Two elderly twins - Virulent Veronica and Conniving Clementine - who run a tea-shop must also die because of their persistent taunting of the younger Dyson, publicly stigmatising him for his father's alleged sins. After eventually passing his driving test, Dyson tours local used car yards for his first set of wheels. He has one main criterion. The car's boot must be wide enough to accommodate the Samurai sword - honed to razor sharpness - which hangs on he bedroom wall of his student digs.
Dyson is devastated to learn that one of the malignant twins has thwarted his vengeance by dying of old age. Undaunted, he executes her sister and returns to London where, after befriending the daughter of an Indian billionaire. he is invited to an the launch party of an art exhibition by a young man called Sebastian
'A grim-faced waiter, wearing a bright green tail coat, materializes next to me.He is holding out a plate.
"Tuna balls with cream cheese and red onion."
I help myself to one. It tastes piquant. The exhibition's art is being put to shame by the seafood Hors d'Oevre. Sebastian is devoid of artistic talent. However, he has one thing going for him. His German mother is an heiress to a pharmaceutical fortune.'
After a few false starts, Dyson finally puts the Samurai sword to use in the manner for which it was designed, and his trilogy of vengeance seems to be over. Despite some interest from the police, he has covered his tracks so carefully that the two most recent crimes cannot be pinned on him, and he begins his working career in the less-than-exotic offices of a London borough council in their Green Spaces Department. This segues fairly neatly into the first book - in publishing chronology - of the series, Necropolis, which I reviewed in 2014 (click here to read)
Satire in Britain is, in my view, in a fairly bad way at the moment. Like comedy, it seems to have just been absorbed into the prevailing metropolitan liberal mindset, which only considers the political right as a legitimate target. Private Eye is a shadow of its former self, and I gave up on HIGNFY years ago. Rare is the journalist who challenges the prevailing Islingtonian doctrines through comedy, Rod Liddle being perhaps one exception. I can't think of anyone who writes quite like Guy Portman. Jonathan Meades is similarly trenchant and iconoclastic, but even his last novel had to be crowd-funded, as no publisher would touch it. If your dragons are in the shape of cultural and political correctness, slavish worship of diversity, and hand-wringing liberal views, Portman is the man to slay them.
December 31, 2025
I've enjoyed all of the stories about this wonderful psychopath thus far, so the chance to go back in time and see him younger was not to be missed. This is a direct follow-on from the tortures if not quite the time of Genesis and caps off that part of Dyson's life before we pick him up again in Necropolis. If you, like me, still have the old 2014 version of that one lying about, update your Kindles folks!
December 22, 2025
Another very strong book in the series.
Once again the central character is central to a story packed full of murder, fun and mayhem which should be devoured and enjoyed.
Perfectly potted and crafted, this is a incredibly enjoyable story to read. Brilliant.
Once again the central character is central to a story packed full of murder, fun and mayhem which should be devoured and enjoyed.
Perfectly potted and crafted, this is a incredibly enjoyable story to read. Brilliant.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews