DEAD MONEY by Ray Banks

Ray Banks is one of those authors that you really should look out for. I have already reviewed CALIFORNIA, also by him, for Eurocrime. DEAD MONEY is yet another awesomely nasty book......

Dead Money by Ray Banks. 2011. Blasted Heath. Epub £1.99. 180 pages ISBN 978-1-908688-04-0.

This epub is the second version of DEAD MONEY in circulation. The first was published by PointBlank Press, in the USA in 2004, under the name THE BIG BLIND.

Ray Banks is one of those excellent authors who aren’t afraid of writing a book that doesn’t necessarily have a soft and sappy ending. Such was the case with CALIFORNIA, my first experience of a book by him, and I was really looking forward to enjoying this particularly tasty-looking morsel. I wasn’t disappointed. He is fast becoming one of my firm favourites.

Hard-hitting and short but, thankfully, not at all sweet, DEAD MONEY smacks you in the gob right at the start and drags you along rather roughly, leaving you feeling somewhat bedraggled and fragile afterwards. It has the perfect amount of ‘ick factor’ and was the perfect accompaniment to my afternoon bus ride between classes in less than lovely areas of Edinburgh.

Alan Slater has a bit of a problem but refuses to let it get him down. His marriage is in tatters and his dog doesn’t like him but he has his best mate, Beale, and his job as a double-glazing salesman, so everything’s OK. Except his friend likes to gamble and has a bit of an attitude when he loses. Which tends to happen a lot, so Alan gets to look after his friend and keep him out of trouble – which also keeps him away from his wife. Things start to take a downward slide when he hits and kills a dog with his car one wet and rainy night. He dumps the dog, upsets his wife and then a poker game that goes badly wrong results in a request from Beale that he really shouldn’t say yes to. And it isn’t too long after this that his troubles really begin……

An awesome story with an awesome ending. Don’t let the short length of the stories by Ray Banks put you off trying them. If you like things black and nasty then you are going to love him!

Wee Rockets by Gerard Brennan

Here is a review of my latest Kindle read. This one is a real cracker....

Wee Rockets by Gerard Brennan. Dec 2011. Blasted Heath. Epub £1.99. 268 pages (estimated).

This book is still messing with my head and I finished it two days ago. It is a superbly crafted, blacker-than-black, account of a gang of vicious 14-year-old thugs, running wild in the streets of Belfast and will leave a very nasty taste in your mouth by the time you’ve done with it. Perhaps in the light of the aftermath of last year’s riots and the increasing amount of unrest amongst the youth of today, this tale of urban decay is closer to the truth than we would like to admit.

The story starts with the gang, the Wee Rockets, mugging an elderly lady for her purse and leaving her badly injured. Members of the community are incensed by the violent nature of the attack and one man in particular, Stephen McVeigh, decides to take matters into his own hands. He has a pretty good idea of who is responsible and, as he gets closer to the truth, Joe, the gang leader, decides to break ranks and leave the gang to save his skin. He hands the reins over to someone else, who immediately ups the ante and the risks they take to “earn” money for fags and cider increase significantly – as does the price they must pay if things don’t go to plan.

Meanwhile, Joe has other fish to fry. First his mum has a new boyfriend; that strange, ginger, McVeigh, who he is sure is out to get him, and, second, his dad is back in town, looking to make amends and catch up for lost time. Joe’s dad’s motives for befriending him, however, are not as paternal as would first appear and Joe is soon involved in something far more dangerous than his teenage gang and smoking dope…..

What really screams at you from every page of this story is the lack of respect everyone has for everyone else and the horrific way that this has impacted onto the dysfunctional lives and attitudes of the kids in the gang. They show the finger to everyone in authority and, really, when you see the role models that their lives are based on, you can’t really blame them or be shocked at the way they have turned out. Living in the Easter Road area of Edinburgh, I am familiar with groups of drinking teenagers out on the streets in the evenings. I wonder how long it will be before these children turn to violence to have a bit more money and excitement in their lives.

Gerard Brennan is a gifted Northern Irish writer and the author of THE POINT (published by Pulp Press) as well as WEE ROCKETS. You can follow his blog here.. http://crimesceneni.blogspot.co.uk/. I am looking forward to reading more of his work in the future.


Very highly recommended