They'll tell you the truth about why West Ham Dave ended up in the pies. They'll tell you with absolute certainty. You'll never eat another one at a football match. There's only one problem. No two of them tell it the same way.
In the East End, everybody knew West Ham Dave. They knew he was a grass. They knew the football lot got to him. They knew where he ended up - and they'll swear to it on their nan's life. There's no body. No record. No photograph that survives a second look. There may never have been a Dave at all.
Edward Cole, a retired copper turned cold-case reviewer, is handed three dusty boxes marked Operation Pie Crust and told to close the file. He grew up in this world - the pubs, the terraces, the away coaches, the collection tins - and he knows exactly how it talks. What he doesn't know is that the deeper he digs, the less he finds, and the more certain everyone becomes... The deeper Cole investigates, the less certain anything becomes. Every lead generates another lead.
Every witness points to another witness. Every answer creates a new question.
Some men insist Dave was one of the best lads they ever knew. Others claim he was a nuisance.
Some are convinced he is dead. Some swear they saw him last week.
All of them are certain. None of them agree.
Set against the backdrop of Britain's football culture, working-class communities and the turbulent decades that shaped them, West Ham Dave is a darkly funny and deeply human mystery about memory, loyalty, friendship and the stories people tell each other until those stories become reality.
Part cold-case investigation.
Part social history.
Part urban legend.
And somewhere inside it all is a simple question:
Did West Ham Dave ever exist at all?
