Noir, (Paperback)

This is Ken Champion's best novel to date. Tightly written and surprising, its main character, Vincent, is one of the author's ' vivid working class men who, after a university education, lives a life at once rich in social observation and sense perceptions and awash with anger at a world that doesn't allow any real integration between his roots and present life. A professor of racially diverse adult students and a wanderer through London, Vincent begins an emotionally intriguing journey with a woman who lives in the vintage clothes of a past era, the story line following their relationship. The end is determined both by Vincent's dissatisfactions and by the shock of the brutal, random events of real life. It's an unusual, gripping book. Meredith Sue Willis, Hamilton Stone Review, USA (2016)