Gangsters, a meticulously planned murder and drug addicts are not the types of things you expect to be talked about within the walls of a Bradford supermarket.

But for one employee these vices and the seedy underworld they exist in have been on the tip of his tongue - and his pen - for the best part of a decade.

For over the past nine years Tony King, pictured, has been formulating plot twists and turns for a novel while working at the Morrisons head office in Thornton Road, Bradford.

And now the 45-year-old's debut book, Keep Moving, has gone stateside after it was snapped up by US publishers, Publish America.

Mr King, of Oakhall Park, Thornton, described the thriller as "edge of your seat stuff" and said he started writing it in 1994.

Set in Glasgow, a drug addict is killed by ruthless gangster Will Cameron as an example to others who owe him cash.

The plot then follows a course by the addict's friends to get revenge on Cameron for the vicious slaughter.

"It's primarily about friendship and how far you'll go for your friends," said Mr King.

"It's also about putting people in situations that are out of the ordinary and seeing how people react to them."

The IT service support manager, who has worked for the supermarket chain for the past 27 years, said he decided to send his work to America after failing to have it published in the UK.

Mr King has had poetry and short stories published in the UK previously but said he was thrilled his work was available in the US.

"I sent some samples off to Publish America and they showed an interest and it all went from there really," he said.

"It's an amazing feeling to have the book in your hand. To open it and see it in print for the first time is an emotional moment."

The father-of-two is unsure how his book is selling across the Atlantic but said there have been complimentary reviews of it on various websites.

He is writing his second novel which he hopes will follow his debut by being published.

A Morrisons spokesman said: "It's good to know that Tony's talent has been recognised with the release of his first novel in America.

"We wish him well with it."

To find out more about Mr King's book visit www.PublishAmerica.com