I'd never read anything by Peter Cocks before but judging by the fact that the book cover states that this is "an Eddie Savage thriller", presumably this is (or will be) part of a series. Eddie Savage is certainly an interesting enough central character to support this format.
The book instantly takes us straight into the heart of the seedy criminal underworld of South London. Eddie (as he comes to be known) discovers in one foul swoop that his big brother has been found dead and that he had a secret identity - infiltrating the IRA as a kind of secret government agent. Despite being only 17 years old, Eddie is recruited as his replacement, being whisked away to a new life, a new flat and a whole new identity, breaking into the ruthless world of big-time gangsters.
It's a gritty crime thriller with many scenes of ruthless violence and gangland murder. It's also a bit of a coming-of-age novel, with Eddie growing from a boy to a man, having a few moral dilemmas along the way and discovering his first love. Parts of it read a bit like a Boys Own adventure story with implausible car chases and indiscriminate planting of bugs.
And that's what actually poses me a bit of a problem. I read this as a pretty good grown-up crime novel with an improbably young central character and a few overly contrived and slightly childish elements to the plot. I couldn't help but picture a rather benign Archie Mitchell-type figure every time the ruthless Tommy Kelly was on the scene !
Then I flipped over the book and realised that this is aimed at teens, with a suggested age of 14+. Now, Sophie is only 9 so she's way too young to read this but I teach 11-14 year olds and there's no way I'd let them anywhere near this book. The graphic details used to describe a man hacked to death with a sword, complete with blood and entrails dripping everywhere, or the seemingly gratuitous disfiguring of a security guard, whose mouth is enlarged almost from ear to ear with a blade, with a few swift kicks to the head afterwards for good measure, left ME feeling squeamish and I'm a seasoned reader of adult crime novels. Even the tone is sometimes dubious for teens. I smirked as one of the Kelly thugs told a victim whose hand he'd just slammed into a safe door to watch out or he'll come back next time and do his winking hand (wrong vowel, but this is a family blog - I'm sure you'll work it out !), but it's not something I'd expect to find in a book for teens.
I think it's an interesting concept to create gritty crime novels for a younger market - most young adult fiction seems to be fantasty at the moment - but I would have preferred a more clearcut audience. Either ditch the really violent scenes so it's OK for teens, or go for a more grown-up lead character and target the grown-up crime fiction market. As it stands, I felt it couldn't really decide which way it wanted to lean.
star rating : 4/5
RRP : £6.99
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Walker (3 Jan 2011)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1406324752
ISBN-13: 978-1406324754
Other reviews you may be interested in :
No comments:
Post a Comment