In recent years there’s been a crop of crime
writing emerging from the British Asian Community, brilliant writers whose work
I’ve been honoured to review. Khurrum Rahman and his East of Hounslow joins Imran Mahmood’s debut You Don’t Know Me; Amer
Anwar’s Western Fringes; A A Dhand’s
Streets of Darkness and Girl Zero. So how does he compare? Well Rahman lives up
to the competition and some.
East of Hounslow tells the story of Javid Qasim, “Jay”,
a petty drug dealer carving an illicit living for himself on the streets of
West London. He’s Muslim, but he’s not religious in the slightest, barely
observant. He’s typical in fact of many young men who wander from the straight
and narrow in these times of austerity, stagnant wages and a dearth of
opportunities. But Jay is Muslim and through no fault of his own that is going
to lead to problems for him. It starts when his local mosque is desecrated. Jay
pitches in to help clean up the mess and repair the damage but it’s quickly
apparent that some hotheads are stirring up trouble trying to get some of the
local youths to hit back. Jay goes along to a meeting, more to look out for his
gullible and impressionable friend. For similar reasons, when his friend gets
drawn into the hype to hit back at some random whites, Jay goes along to keep
him out of trouble. Of course, trouble is what they get, not least Jay’s car
being swiped in the ensuing chaos, which so happens to have all the drugs he
has on credit from a powerful drug lord in the boot.
Meanwhile, MI5 have their eyes on Jay as a
potential recruit. They believe a cell of Islamic extremists is operating in
the area and feel Jay would be the perfect informant. From here Jay’s life gets
complicated and very dangerous. The druglord, Silas Drakos, is the unforgiving
type. MI5 meanwhile sink their claws into him and Jay is recruited. So, he ends
up juggling keeping an eye out for Silas’s henchmen, infiltrating a dangerous
cell of extremists, all the while struggling with both his own sense of
identity and MI5’s demands.
There are many things to like about East of
Hounslow. It’s a thriller that moves along at a great pace and tells a
compelling story, but it’s so much more than that. One thing I particularly
liked about this book is the author’s depiction of Jay’s recruitment by MI5. As
a current affairs journalist, I’ve had occasion in the past to meet with
anti-terrorist officers, civil servants in the Cabinet Office, and others
who’ve worked with the Security Services. One thing many writers get wrong is
the process of source recruitment. Contrary to common belief, those employed
directly on the staff of the intelligence services, those who receive a wage,
pay their taxes, get a pension at the end of thirty years or whatever, aren’t
“agents”. Rather, these are case officers or intelligence officers. An agent is
the person the intelligence officer recruits on the inside, what the police
might call an informant. The police vernacular is much more honest about all
this. The police call their “agents” sources or informants and thus the people
the police recruit are never really under any illusions as to their role. The
people the security services recruit however, by being called “agents” rather
than informants or sources, might be. The author teases this out brilliantly.
When Jay is first recruited he has these images in his head from James Bond
movies, he has this idea that he’s going to receive the special watch that
fires poisonous darts or receive training in spy-craft. He doesn’t get how
expendable he is. Throughout the narrative the tension builds as Jay begins to
suspect the truth and his handler attempts to manage his expectations. Then
there’s the tension between his handler who feels a duty of care to Jay
and others in MI5 who see him as merely a tool.
Another aspect of this novel I liked, especially
in the current climate, is how the author gets across how ordinary young
Muslims can be radicalised through disenfranchisement and alienation, until
they’re willing to commit the most heinous acts of terror. At no point does the
author glamourise this process, or make excuses for those who cross the line
from fundamentalism to violent jihad, but the portrayal of his characters does
explain how this process might occur. While the ending, without divulging
spoilers, is frighteningly plausible; indeed, a recent event made me think it might
be scarily prescient.
East of Hounslow is an incredibly assured debut. It
can be read on many different levels. If the reader prefers, it can be enjoyed
as simply a thriller. But to my mind it is so much richer. This is a cutting
critique of the war on terror, the techniques the Security Services use to foil
plots, the mistakes they make when doing so. It is also a commentary on the
life experiences of young Muslims living the UK today, the tensions between
their Britishness and their Islamic identities, the competing influences that
pull at their psyches. However one chooses to enjoy this novel, it really is
something special and should not be missed.
Apparently, we haven’t heard the last of Jay and
indeed the book while wrapping itself up nicely is ripe for a sequel. I for one
can’t wait for Jay’s next outing, for if it’s anything like East of Hounslow it’ll
be great.
5 out of 5 stars
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