This shocking debut novel from award-winning journalist Paul Kennedy tells the twisted tales of three lives a million miles apart as they come crashing together with disastrous consequences. Away on business, Dirk McVee is the self proclaimed "Carpet King of Texas" -- but work is the last thing on his mind as he prowls Liverpool's underbelly to quench his thirst for sexual kicks. Teenager Jade Thompson is far too trusting for her own good. In search of a guiding light and influential figure, she slips away from her loving family and into a life where no one emerges unscathed. And John Jones Junior is the small boy with the grown-up face. With a drug addicted father, no motherly love, no hope, and no future, he has no chance at all. The Carpet King of Texas is a gritty and gruesome, humorous and harrowing story of a world we all live in but rarely see.