Eye for Eye by J.K. Franko

How to commit the perfect crime is a regular concern of protagonists in crime fiction, as is how to commit the perfect murder. At heart this is what forms the basis of the plot of Eye for Eye, J.K.Franko’s debut, and the first in a planned trilogy. 

Roy Cruise is a successful financier, a former lawyer who now finds start-ups to invest in. He’s good at what he does and has become very successful. His wife Susie is a former television news journalist, turned advocate, warning people against texting while driving. This came out of their family’s personal tragedy; their daughter, Camilla, having died after a man crashed into her car while doing so. While holidaying they meet another couple, Tom and Deb Wise, whose daughter Kristy was raped. They suggest that the Cruise’s kill their daughter’s rapist so that they might secure justice, Old Testament justice, symbolically also avenging Camilla too.

I won’t say any more about the plot, or why the Cruises might agree to do this, or what other twists and turns lie in store for all concerned, for fear of divulging spoilers.  Needless to say, all is explained within the novel’s pages. What I can say is that this is a tightly plotted novel with numerous strands which are all woven together with aplomb. The author has obviously thought carefully about how his characters might get away with a “perfect homicide” and he creates a compelling scenario. Clearly, a lot of research has gone into this novel too, the fruits of which are used to make the story very believable.

Eye for Eye is 432 pages, quite a length for a novel, and I have to say that when opening it I was a little concerned that it might flag somewhere in the middle. It wouldn’t be the first novel which did, even famous writers can have trouble sustaining a novel-length story. I’m pleased to say that the author managed it, and I never found my interest waning. In part that’s due to a cast of interesting and compelling characters, who even when engaged in horrible acts remain sympathetic and relatable. But it’s also due to the sheer desire of the reader to know whether they really can pull off the “perfect murder” and the author ensures that one’s interest is captivated throughout.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this novel and will definitely read the sequel. Eye for Eye’s narrator is unknown until the end of the book and I’m guessing this person takes a more centre stage in book 2, so it will be interesting to see how the titles intersect.  The Talion Trilogy, as the author is calling the novels, are a series and so I’m sure characters will recur. Will those from Book 1 finally be brought to justice for their crimes or will they forever get away with murder? Will they continue murdering people in book 2 and 3, or will we be introduced to other perpetrators? Needless to say, I look forward to finding out.

4 out of 5 stars 

The Chemical Detective by Fiona Erskine

Publishing, like television and film, likes a trend. Psychological thrillers are the big thing at the moment in crime fiction, following the success of books like The Girl on the Train. But a smaller, though no less vibrant, trend of high-octane, global spanning and high-concept thrillers was sparked by Terry Hayes novel I Am Pilgrim. This continues to bubble away with authors James Swallow and Greg Hurwitz writing novels of this sub-genre. Joining them now come’s Fiona Erskine, with her novel The Chemical Detective.

Dr Jaq Silver is a chemical engineer working in Slovenia for Snow Science, a research institute that amongst other things does avalanche control. She’s an explosives expert and a daredevil, as comfortable blowing things up as she is skiing and jumping into bed with men half her age. She came to Snow Science under something of a cloud however, having previously worked for a chemical plant in Teeside, England, where a number of workers died. She got the blame and while was never charged has faced civil action form the workers’ families.

Jaq is trying to forget this and knuckle down in her new career, but she stumbles upon an odd consignment of explosives sent to Snow Science from her old company. When she starts to investigate, samples go missing and her boss obstructs her. It isn’t long before things go pear shaped and she’s framed with murder with no choice but to go on the run. So sparks an international game of cat and mouse as Jaq tries to clear her name, investigate the conspiracy she’s stumbled upon, avoid the bad guys intent on killing her, all the while unsure as to who she can trust.

There’s much to like about The Chemical Detective. The author herself is a chemical engineer and imbues her novel with her expertise. This is all down adroitly and reading this book I learnt a thing or two about explosives, chemical weapons, radiation and nuclear energy. The plot is current dealing as it does with Weapons of Mass Destruction and proliferation, a big bogeyman for the international community and law enforcement. Jaq Silver is a compelling character, a female protagonist not without her faults, but likeable and capable without being an unrealistic superhero. Much of the supporting cast is equally well developed. The antagonists were equally good, the character known as The Spider being particularly chilling.

At the end of the novel the author discusses how long it took her to write the novel - a first draft relatively quickly followed by years of editing - which mirrors my own experiences and her candour in this regard made me warm to her and her writing even more. She hints that this is the first outing for Dr Jaq Silver and that she has further tales for her protagonist. I hope so as it will be good to see how the character develops.

An intelligent yet fast moving and exciting thriller, The Chemical Detective is a compelling debut.

4 out of 5 stars

To Catch a Killer by Peter Bleksley

I first came across the author, a former undercover officer for London’s Metropolitan Police, when reading his autobiography, The Gangbuster. Since then I’ve read his contributions to other works, such as Neil Wood’s Drug Wars, and followed him on Twitter. Most readers might be familiar with him from his contribution to the show Hunted, though I confess to never having watched it myself. 

After his autobiography, The Gangbuster, the author wrote another book examining unsolved murders. Titled On The Run, each chapter focused on a different unsolved killing. To Catch a Killer is his third book and was supposed to follow the format of the previous title - examine a number of murders - but in the end chose just one, the shooting of Alistair Wilson on his doorstep in Nairn in 2004.

I was not aware of the Alistair Wilson’s killing until reading this book and the author does a good job of summarising and introducing his readers to this appalling crime. Alistair was a banker and family man with a wife and two children. On the evening of 28^thNovember a man called at his house asking for him. Alistair’s wife, Veronica, answered the door and called her husband. When Alistair came to the door the man handed him an envelope which was empty. After discussing this with his wife who had gone back upstairs, Alistair returned to the front door where he was shot dead.  This murder has never been solved and there has never been an arrest.

I’ve seen some reviewers on Amazon say the author spends as much time discussing his own career and credentials as he does the murder. This in my opinion is unfair. There are some chapters where he discusses his own career, but they are solely to give his fascination with the Alistair Wilson killing context and the vast majority of the book is focused on the crime and theories as to its motive. 

The theories as to why Alistair was killed are numerous, though most focus on his work in banking. The author examines all the various theories and meets with sources to discuss them and garner new information. Unfortunately, Police Scotland (the murder occurred in the jurisdiction of the Northern Constabulary, but all Scottish police constabularies have since been amalgamated), Alistair’s employer, the Bank of Scotland, and his wife, Veronica Wilson, all refused to be interviewed which complicates matters. That said, the author, makes a good effort at getting to the truth and while he doesn’t solve the crime (a big ask for any book) he does come up with some interesting ideas.

If I have one criticism of To Catch a Killer, it’s that at some points the narrative is a bit too chatty and informal. Perhaps as an ex-police officer he was keen not to avoid “bureaucratise”, that dry language police and other officials tend to use when making public pronouncements, or perhaps he was just trying to be more approachable. To my mind though, a book like this desires a more authoritative journalistic tone. I stress this is not a criticism of the book’s content, or the author, just a minor quibble with the tone of voice it’s written in.

That said, To Catch a Killer is a good account and examination of an intriguing and disturbing case and one I’m grateful to the author for bringing to my attention. Apparently, Peter Bleksley is set to write another book examining another case. On the strength of To Catch a Killer, I look forward to reading it.

4 out of 5 stars      

The Friends of Harry Perkins by Chris Mullin

I first read Chris Mullin’s famous first novel, A Very British Coup, about Harry Perkins, a left-wing firebrand in the late 1980’s, who becomes Prime Minister only to be deposed by the establishment, after watching the brilliant Channel 4 adaptation starring Ray McNally. Getting hold of the original novel the series was based on, I was surprised by its brevity, more a novella than a novel. Reading the book, I was also thoroughly disappointed, for unlike the series the novel suffered from clunky dialogue, paper thin characters, and just didn’t do the story justice. 

The Friends of Harry Perkins is Mullin’s sequel to A Very British Coup, something people have asked for years whether he was going to write and which he had no real intention of doing. With Brexit he changed his mind and well here we are. Like the first novel, this is a very short book, just 192 pages. Set a few years after Brexit, the story tells of Fred Thomson, Perkins’ former aide, re-entering politics. Winning Harry Perkins old seat for Labour, Thomson rises the greasy pole and has to contend with the far right, the ongoing damage caused by Brexit, the Tories, all the while with a war brewing between the United States and China. All within what is really a novella rather than a novel.

Unlike A Very British Coup, I found The Friends of Harry Perkins to be very well written. On the whole the dialogue was convincing rather than clunky (though there were occasions of exposition) and the characters while not as developed as they might, were convincing. The Thomson family suffers a very personal tragedy during the narrative, and this was portrayed very powerfully, I don’t mind admitting that this section had me shed a tear. Similarly, the parliamentary machinations are handled adeptly, not surprising seeing as the author was himself a parliamentarian for many years.

That all said, this novel suffers from two related problems. The first is one that afflicted A Very British Coup - the brevity. It’s been a few years since I read that title, but the concept was relatively simple: a left-wing firebrand become Prime Minister, only to be deposed by the establishment. But despite its simplicity, the shortness of the novel just couldn’t do it justice, there just wasn’t the space for the narrative to breath.  The plot of The Friends of Harry Perkins is more convoluted and nebulous, and thus the brevity of the narrative is even less satisfactory.

The second problem is that while A Very British Coup dealt with a historical issue, The Friends of Harry Perkins is much more current. A Very British Coup was apparently inspired by the idea of what would happen if Tony Benn became Prime Minister, something which was never going to happen (unlike now when Corbyn became leader of the party). The idea of MI5 and the establishment undermining a Prime Minister harked back to conspiracy theories which suggest they did just that to Harold Wilson. But the fact is it was never likely to happen at the time was and pure speculation. Now Corbyn might become Prime Minister, the novel has gained renewed currency. 

The Friends of Harry Perkins however deals with Brexit and by necessity the narrative has to make predictions as to what might happen. But with Brexit-related events changing by the minute the risk is that the narrative will be taken over and made redundant by events rather than be seen as prescient. Again, the brevity of the text makes this danger greater for if the author had taken the time to flesh out his scenario, he might have made a convincing alternate universe that even if overtaken by events would give an insight into how things might have been. Unfortunately, he just gives us a skeleton of a scenario, the bare ones of one, and thus it is easily forgettable. 

All in all, The Friends of Harry Perkins is perversely better written than A Very British Coup but much less compelling as a story. That said, it will sell well on the basis of the author’s reputation and the success of the original. But I have a prediction: Just as A Very British Coup was snapped up for television and the television show was much better than the original source material, I imagine it won’t be long before history repeats itself and the same occurs for The Friends of Harry Perkins.

3 out of 5 stars

The Gypsy Code by Mike Woodhouse

This is an apparently true account of one man’s changing relationship with Gypsies. Mike Woodhouse was a successful man. He was also someone who was far from risk averse, happy to change direction and try new things and make a success of it. An engineer by trade, he had tried his luck at running a nightclub, then when that got too much, threw it in and took a job as a welder before working his way up an engineering company. While there he had his first run in with the Smiths, a troublesome Gypsy clan involved in criminality. Having disturbed a robbery at the company, Mike gave chase and ran them off the road. This sparked a feud that would follow him.

Mike moved away and started his own business, but the Smiths were never far away. A passionate rugby man and unafraid to use his fists, he was not the kind of guy to back down. He also could call on other like-minded and equally capable people. This was most obvious when local farmers asked him to help drive Gypsies from their land, something he engaged in with gusto. But Mike met Rhoda, a Romany Gypsy, and he fell in love. This was the start of a change in his attitudes, and while still despising the Smiths, he learnt that Gypsy culture is far richer than he had dreamed. This change in attitude was solidified when through a betrayal he ended up losing everything and having no choice but to move in to a trailer with Rhoda, in effect living the Gypsy life himself.

The Gypsy Code is an interesting book, it’s very well written and compelling. Gypsies and travellers are often a source of contention for middle England, their caravans and trailers unwelcome in town’s and villages throughout Britain. Their communities suffer discrimination and exclusion; some are involved in crime and they are disproportionately reflected in the prison population. This book doesn’t shy away from the criminality associated with some members of the community, the Smiths being a thoroughly antisocial family, but equally in the latter part of the narrative the author shows how all-too-often the whole population is tarnished with the same brush. 

Unfortunately, he’s not consistent, however. Towards the end of the book, Mike runs a stall at a traveller fare and relates how the Romany gypsies were well dressed, polite and proud, the Irish travellers in tracksuits and troublesome. Is this really the case? All Romany’s are upstanding members of the community while all Irish travellers are criminals? Is he not doing what others do to the community as a whole and if he had fallen in love with an Irish traveller instead of a Romany, would he not perceive things the other way around? That said, this is a biography, not a journalistic account or academic study of gypsy/traveller life, and that was obviously how he perceived things at the time. 

Without giving away spoilers, Mike’s earlier activity of fighting with Gypsies and running them off farmer’s land comes back to haunt him, and the book ends on a bitter sweet note. The Gypsy Code is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. Well written and moving, it will be interesting to read what the author writes next.

4 out of 5 stars

Welcome to the Heady Heights by David F Ross

If I’m not mistaken, Welcome to the Heady Heights is the author’s fourth novel with Orenda Books (I don’t know if he’s written anything else besides that) his previous three titles being the Disco Days trilogy. I have those on my kindle, but confess to not having read them yet, so Heady Heights was my first experience of this writer. 

It’s 1970’s Glasgow and Archie Blunt is an eternal optimist. He’s not exactly the most successful of people, having just lost his job on the busses with the Glasgow Corporation, having no real prospects to speak of, no family or relationships. He has some friends in a similar situation to himself and cares for his father who suffers with dementia. After getting a job as a driver with a local gangster and being given the task of chauffeuring around a leading figure in light entertainment, his dreams of a life in show business are ignited. 

Hank “Heady” Heights hosts a television talent show. Titled Heady Heights, it’s a play on his name, egotistically allowing him to bestow on competitors the glory of soaring to the heights of celebrity. When Archie saves Hank from an irate husband, the impresario is in his debt. Archie leverages it in pursuit of his dreams and gets a shot at the show. He recruits a motley group of young men to form a band so that he can enter them as their manager. Nothing is that simple however and Archie soon finds himself out of his depth and in the midst of a sprawling conspiracy.

Set in the 1970’s this book tackles a number of issues that have since come to prominence, namely organised sexual abuse amongst the great and the good, in politics, business, law and show business. Jimmy Saville is referenced and there are other characters who are thinly veiled portraits of real-life offenders. A supporting cast of characters - WPC Barbara Sherman, a police officer in an age where female officers suffered routine misogyny from their colleagues, and Gail Proctor, a young freelance journalist - are trying to expose these people. But it’s Archie who steals the show. Hapless and naïve, he doesn’t realise what he’s stepped into and how his simple pursuit of his dreams has upset the evildoer’s apple cart.

This is a comedic book full of heart, despite the story’s grim undercurrent. This is not a crime thriller, and it is not an earnest or hard read; that said, neither does it treat the difficult subject matter with flippancy. It is a paean to the Glasgow of the seventies - one can feel the author’s affection for the city and time period - though not rose-tinted and ignorant of the poverty that blighted it. But mostly it’s a rollercoaster of a ride, one man’s attempt to follow his dreams and reach for the sky, ignorant of the fact that all around him is cynicism and criminality. This is a great book, a poignant and funny blast, and I can highly recommend it.

5 out of 5 stars.

Attend by West Camel

Sam is a gay man coming to terms with his sexuality. He’s just moved to London and is new to Deptford, an outsider. In a chance encounter he meets Derek, a local hardman and they fall for each other. Anne is a recovering heroin addict, Deptford born and bred. She is estranged from her family but is trying to make amends and rebuild bridges. These two separately meet Deborah, an old woman and seamstress. While the rest of the city’s denizens seem to not notice Deborah, she seems to be everywhere that Sam and Anne turn. Deborah has a beguiling knack for spinning a flighty yarn and soon has them mesmerised by tales of her youth and how she got to be where she is today, living in a strange tumbledown house amongst the warehouses by a creek on the Thames.

Attend is a beautiful tale that is difficult to categorise. There are elements of many a genre here - touches of crime, romance and magical realism. But at heart this is a literary novel of self-discovery. Both Sam and Anne start the novel unsure of what they want and where they’re going, and through Deborah learn much about life. Another feature of the novel is the interconnectedness, how all the characters’ lives are weaved together like threads on a rich tapestry. 

The novel takes place in Deptford and is rich in local history and folklore. I’m not sure how much of this is true and how much are imagined, whether for example, the earth under these South East London streets is actually riddled with forgotten tunnel systems, but it all makes for a beautifully and beguiling tale.

Attend isn’t my usual type of read, personally I opt for grittier fare, but I knew this was going to be good, published as it is by Orenda, a benchmark in publishing quality. I wasn’t disappointed; this is a thoughtful and haunting tale, one that makes the reader think about the invisible web of connections that run through communities and between people, and consider that perhaps there is more occurring around, and perhaps even beneath, us than we were aware.

4 out of 5 stars