Another of the amusing, but scurrilous criminal chronicles by Danny King, which follows his Burglar Diaries and is soon to be followed by The Hitman Diaries. They are certainly funny and a previous reviewer called them 'laugh out loud books ' - he was Bruce Reynolds, the Great Train Robber.
Told in the first person, the narrator is Chris Benson, a professional armed robber of banks, and building societies and he reminisces about his career in a easy, throw-away style that in places, is extremely funny. His elder brother Gavin, who his idol, gets banged-up for a long stretch and the hitherto criminally-inept Chris has to take on leadership of the small gang. Success follows almost accidentally and to keep a low profile between raids, he forces his desperately-awful wife Debbie to live in suburbia, where he joins the Neighbourhood Watch! The book relates a series of jobs, until the final one goes pear-shaped, the actual ending being left to reader's imagination.
The writer has smooth, slick style and is highly entertaining. At the same time, the reader is left with an uneasy feeling that the amorality of tale is too near the truth for comfort - the total indifference of the characters to other people's feelings, property or even life is disturbing. As one follows the progression of Chris's willingness to kill whenever it becomes expedient, one hopes, but rather doubts, that this is a work of pure fiction.