Framed

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It stars Frankie James – like Barnes, an author surrogate for O'Sullivan himself – a smart, capable guy from a colourful background, who is jostled from his day job running a snooker club so he can investigate a murder for which his hapless younger brother has been implicated. Ronnie's own life story is fascinating, and as a template for a character, Ronnie himself is a great place to start. I found myself coming back to it and wanting to get through to the next chapter to see what was coming next.

With an absent mother and a father in jail, it falls on Frankie to try and help prove Jack's innocence. Yes the dialogue is clunky and makes you think that everyone in London talks like they're in an early Guy Ritchie film. But in this gangster underworld of drugs, violence and murder will Frankie be tough enough to get the truth, set his brother free and get out alive? Yes there are a few things that have been introduced in this book that I am sure we will be revisiting in subsequent books but this opener didn't waste time and words in over complicating things.His first novel takes us into the London underworld where we meet Frankie - and his brother who gets framed for murder. The story is very graphic and memorable and I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a mystery/thriller. Good descriptions, realistic vernacular (the tone of the story is exactly how Ronnie The Rocket sounds in interviews).

In its place you get a fairly straight-laced and accomplished airport page-turner, with a leaden plot and as few references to snooker as Ronnie's publishers could limit him to. What’s also fun is the casual name-drop of the author into the conversation of two sarcastic snooker players, which produces an unnerving effect not unlike when a real city is referred to in Kafka. Ronnie is interested in Buddhism, and was the first celebrity to endorse Jeremy Corbyn at the general election. I was driving home from work one afternoon, listening to my favourite sports radio station and the hosts were about to interview Ronnie O'Sullivan. There is everywhere the faint aura of vintage Partridge, nowhere more so than when Frankie visits a Greek thug who has mistreated his deceased mother's flat.His mother disappeared when he was sixteen; his father's in jail for armed robbery; and he owes rent on his Soho snooker club to one of London's toughest gangsters. That style is replicated here in the first of a trilogy following cheeky snooker club owner Frankie James; with gangsters, police, family and murder. Yes, as I have already mentioned, Frankie does punch above his weight on quite a few occasions but then he also screws up a near equal amount of times so, again balanced.

Criticisms, given this is a first effort I don’t want to appear to harsh so reasons for lost star is clumpy dialogue, this can be worked on and I’m sure we’ll see an improvement in the future and secondly some typos. When this book debuted I was excited to read it, however for various reasons it sat on my shelf since 2017 until a few days ago when I got round to reading it. I will at this point just mention that the majority of the negativity that I saw about the book was the amount of swearing. I don't know if Ronnie is planning a sequel or maybe even a series of this book but if he ever does do a follow up I look forward to reading it.

uk/landing-page/orion/orion-company-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Orion Publishing Group Limited. The majority of this book hangs on the central mystery of what the hell actually happened, and indeed that was enough to keep me going from start to finish.