Patrick Black thought he could disappear. He left behind his country, career, partner, and name—vanishing into Europe’s undercurrent, hoping for reinvention. But freedom slips through his fingers when he’s ensnared in a Serbian-run criminal network known as the Gonič. What begins as survival turns into complicity, especially once he meets Vlado, a man who offers protection, control, and twisted comfort. After weeks on the run, Patrick resurfaces in London—now sober, anonymous, and drifting between routines and empty hookups. Just when he finds uneasy stability, he’s tasked with monitoring Jovan, an alluring and attractive man scarred by the same Gonič that broke him. As Patrick navigates his own past and a family desperate to find him, he must decide: stay hidden in the life that protects him, or fight to reclaim the one that could set him free. Strands of Control is Richard T. Dawes’ debut novel. Dawes’ fiction explores gay relationships and psychological tension, blending literary style with realism.
