Connor Hutchinson
Author/Painter

A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK!
Shortlisted for The Gambling Book Awards 2025
Longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2026

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'It's dark comedy meets toxic masculinity.'

The Times

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'A wild ride'

Financial Times

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Jamie Fletcher should be the luckiest man in Manchester. His girlfriend Rebecca is out of his league, he has a best mate and drinking buddy in Trick, and he loves his job at a busy funeral home. Preparing the dead is not something Jamie takes lightly - whether it's choosing the right stockings for his old dinner lady, or playing the local butcher's favourite album to him before cremation.

But beneath his seemingly perfect life, Jamie has been keeping a big secret - one he reveals only to the dead. His gambling addiction has left him in eye-watering debt, and he's running out of ways to keep it hidden.

When Rebecca decides it's time for them to buy their first home together, he knows he has to do something to cover his tracks. Desperate, Jamie does what he knows best - he walks up to the bookies and places the biggest bet of his life.

How far will he go until his luck runs out?

Tonight could be the night that changes everything. You just never know.

​'[A] sharp debut'

The Independent​

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'Compelling.'

Daily Mail

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'A bold, biting exploration of masculinity, working-class struggle and self-destruction - infused with unexpected heart and wicked humour. A wildly original look at what we bury to survive.'

The Bookseller, Discover preview - expert pick

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'Mancunian to its core and infused with subtle northern poetry, this book feels startlingly real. Jamie Fletcher, an embalmer at a busy funeral home in Openshaw, understands better than most how fleeting life can be. So, when the chance to win big arises, why would he refuse?'

Northern Life

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'Connor Hutchinson brilliantly captures the grip of addiction: the lies Jamie tells to protect his secret and his slow unravelling.'

The Tablet

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'A gambling novel for our age...Hutchinson lures his readers into the flashing heart of the most destructive addiction of them all." -

Michael Deagler, author of Early Sobrieties

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'My kind of book. Utilising a narrative voice that hooks you in from the off, there's nothing remotely pretentious about this compellingly convincing portrayal of community, ambition, and the perils of addiction. It's real and raw with a refreshing but scarily accurate relatability; I bet lots of readers will be sucked in by this essential story of our times as much as I was.' Ashley Hickson-Lovence, author of  Wild East, Your Show and The 392

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'A stunningly realistic portrayal of gambling addiction . . . Dead Lucky announces Hutchinson as a writer to listen to about the love and pain in our society' - Ben Halls, author of The Quarry

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'An often hilarious, sometimes nail-biting, always tender portrait of tight-knit communities, unsung heroes, everyday kindness and ordinary working people caught up in forces beyond their control.' - Kate Brook, author of Not Exactly What I Had in Mind.