Revolving around the infamous gentlemen's club of Piccadilly, Scoundrels is the memoirs of the disreputable, antagonistic and unreconstructed Majors, Victor Cornwall and St. John Trevelyan.
The book relies on a complex conceit: that both Cornwall and Trevelyan are unhappy at the prospect of the other beginning work on an autobiography – for fear of their reputation being sullied.
As their lives have been so horribly intertwined since their early schooldays, the Majors come to an uneasy agreement: to write a chapter each, in turn, of a joint autobiography.
These letters contain a great number of astonishing adventures including panda hunting with the last Chinese Emperor, the storming of the Nazi Castle Klunghammer, and the heist of the Picasso painting, Big Lady On A Table.
The book has received positive reviews for its humour, lightness of touch, imaginative storylines, and the antagonistic relationship between Majors Cornwall and Trevelyan.
In August 2017, The Chap Magazine published a full-page review of Scoundrels, by Mark Mason: "The trouble with most spoof biographies is that they don't concentrate enough on the 'biography' aspect.
So desperate are they to get you laughing that they throw a million gags in your face, completely forgetting to make the central character interesting or even believable.
It celebrates a blokey, showboating spirit, outrageous boastfulness and sheer idiocy as elements that are vital to male happiness."
The Majors continue to bicker and boast in their letters to each other as they recall kidnapping in the Congo, manslaughter on the Orient Express and romance at the Stasi Christmas Party.
Volume Two in November was made one of The Spectator Magazine's Books of the Year: "The highlight in fiction was Scoundrels: The Hunt For Hansclapp... Duncan Crowe and James Peak once again pull off the balancing act achieved by only the very best spoofs - making it real enough to be believable, ridiculous enough to be funny."
During October to December 2018, Crowe and Peak made appearances at several branches of Waterstones and Foyles in London and the South East of England to discuss the books.
Crowe and Peak were reportedly delighted to be considered for this award, which has been previously won by John Updike, AA Gill, Ben Okri, Melvyn Bragg, Tom Wolfe, and Norman Mailer.
On 4th April 2021, the actor Alex Norton picked the Scoundrels novels as favourite books, on BBC Scotland's culture programme Shelf Isolation.