Grip by
David McKeowen
pbk out June 05
(Hodder)
at £10.99
The rarefied life of banker Francis Carroll is rocked to its foundations when his son James
attracts the attention of London's gangland drug lords (a small matter of owing them
£30,000). Francis' ex-wife Virginia insists the debt must be paid but Francis has doubts –
shouldn't they inform the police, ought not James take some responsibility? Francis also has
problems: he's on the brink of floating his new company, Intertrust, and needs every penny
he's got; and if he does give James that amount of money, new wife and lawyer, Rachel, is
going to be deeply unhappy about it. On the other side of the divide, we find there is scant
honour among the bad guys as plot and counter plot, and the engagement of a deranged,
hippie hit-man, leads to all manner of high jinx. First novel by Michael Wills MP, writing
under a pen name, is amusing, sometimes laugh-aloud funny, with dashes of brutality.
McKeowen is accurate and acerbic in the portrayal of the privileged and the lawless in
contemporary London but also good on the domestic front where he explores the dynamics
of family and romantic relationships and forces Francis to evaluate his life and decide where
his future lies.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
