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She was testament to how much harder it was to be woman in a mans world, which is not to say that is what I thought London was trying to achieve but my own personal thoughts. With wonderful characterisations, Kate London gives us an uncomfortable and harrowing glimpse into London gangs and the boys that get caught up in that world and a police force that has to deal with this.
Whilst the subject matter and storyline failed to capture my enthusiasm I suspect others with a keener interest in gangland culture and the practicalities of policing in modern cities may well enjoy this insight. Sarah; all work and no play, passionate, determined, willing to risk her personal life to catch the criminal. The way that Kate London alternates chapters between the police force investigation into the man who lured these boys into this lifestyle as runners and the effect on the community of Spencer’s loss, is brilliant. A tragic end for some of these young people caught up in worlds too big and serious for them to navigate.Ryan Kennedy and his friend Spencer Cardoso are two young teenage boys from the wrong side of the tracks. The case is complicated by the fact that it is in the middle of a two year ongoing undercover operation being run by Shaw to bust a gun trafficking deal. Because there is no narrator here you are relying on the text to provide you with clues to their personalities. This is a gritty police procedural that is brilliant in depicting certain parts of London and its communities, and the conflicting goals in contemporary policing. The author analyses very important topics in this book, such as teenage criminals, knife crime, gangs and their war for territory, prostitution, drug addictions, childcare issues for working single mothers etc.
Corvus Atlantic’s commercial fiction list which includes women’s, historical, romance, sci-fi, crime and thriller. One evening 15 year old Spencer is fatally stabbed, his friend, Ryan is distraught and turns to The Bluds leader, Shakiel for help. The author does insist at the end of the book that this is a work of fiction but given her previous career in the police I feel fairly sure that experience has fuelled her imagination significantly. Just published today with Corvus Books, it is described as ‘an explosive police procedural about the epidemic of gang violence in London’. About the author: Kate graduated from Cambridge University and moved to Paris where she trained in theatre.I found the characters more realistic and the petty squabbling between the various Police departments only too believable.
Who knew that the death of one boy could bring out and test so much of the good sides, the bad sides, the vengeful sides and even the ambitious sides of the people that got involved in his case? A street girl, far gone in crack addiction, takes inspiration from her memories of Shakespeare plays (seriously? Ryan watches his friend bleed out on the path of Gallowstree Lane and, after ensuring help is there for his friend, he runs. A really good read, each character playing an important part to the story, naturally picking up pace at the end for the ultimate show down. I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review.Such a young age to be witnessing murder and be involved in gang related activities and sadly no opportunities to escape the inevitable way of life so many young and troubled kids are embroiled in. He is on the verge of a major coup and has no intention of letting the stabbing of a juvenile become the obstacle that will collapse his case. A powerful crime fiction novel exposing the Gang warfare and criminality infecting our inner cities. Normally I would expect this to be filled with a sense of camaraderie between officers (think Lynda La Plante or Carol Wylie) but there is none of that here. Grove Press An imprint of Grove Atlantic, an American independent publisher, who publish in the UK through Atlantic Books.
When Shaw is made aware of the death of this young man, he immediately clamps down on how the case is handled. DI Kieran Shaw is part of Operation Perseus, undercover to finally get the evidence needed to arrest and charge Shakiel, to bring an end to his reign and stop guns getting on the streets. Ryan introduces his friend Spence to his new world and together they set out on a path that would be short lived. Although alliances and hostilities based on previous encounters can be inferred from reading between the lines, this proved a source of frustration and limited my investment in the story. Sarah is a fairly typical detective, dedicated with little life outside work and yet she has a strong sense of right and wrong which works against her this time.
London handled her characters beautifully, her complex plot with ease, laying down layer upon layer of background, delicious intrigue and the London streets that held so much menace and danger. How Kate London managed to weave together all these hitherto separate parts of the story and keep them running in real time, I don’t know. The perspectives of earnest Sarah and impetuous Lizzie, rather consumed by her personal woes with baby son, Connor, dominate the story with occasional interludes from DI Kieran Shaw. Following on from the second book in that series, Death Message, which dealt with issues of domestic violence, London is back on the beat, exploring the world of gangs, drugs and gun violence in Gallowstree Lane.
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