Set in the modern day, this pacey crime novel fills in the colour of those empty shapes we all hear and read about, those otherwise shady or mysterious others who seem committed to their fates, whether along the straight and narrow or the illicit path. The story blurs the bounds between the undeserving and the worthy, leaving the reader to judge them. Is an honourable felon a better person than an errant good guy? You decide. Today's world is a frenetic one and people are on the move more than ever before so whilst the backdrop of the novel may be the inner city, the different strands of the novel will take you off to other shores, because that is the reality of the modern day wherein anyone can find themselves for all kinds of reasons en route to a new land. But the book is about people and what drives them. It is about how they rub up against each other and how they deal with power, influence and the injustices of privilege. We meet the ordinary everyday people like Carla, loyal servant, her neighbour, the shifty Willetts, a small time crook, Aimee, a young hopeful in a harsh and uncertain media world, Barry, a chancer landlord and his reporter fiancée Melissa, who struggle to find time for each other as they battle in pursuit of better prospects. Then there are the unfortunates, the stateless, the itinerants like Indian illegal émigré Sanjay, whose flight to rejoin his childhood love Nuri is fraught with terrors, Muscovite call-girl Nadia whose own pathway is far from smooth and Rusk, former soldier and engrained killer who has fallen into a routine of dubious duty to the self-made grass roots crime lord nicknamed The Plank. This Mr Big's wife, Bea, is cut from a different cloth and is 'connected' as the story will reveal to surprising effect. But don't underestimate the reach and clout of the lowly born. The plot is a clutch of intertwining live wires, sparks often flying as the bare metal strands of the characters brush against each other. One by one, the destinies of the players are realised but all along, our feet are on the solid ground of truth. Nothing in this tale is fantasy, nothing is fanciful, all is based on what we all suspect is how the real world turns.
