How The Wired Weep by Ian Patrick
Independently Published
Publication Date: 30th June 2020
Genre: Crime
Book Description:
The Wire crosses the pond.
Ed is a detective who handles
informants. He recruits Ben, a young man, who is treading a dangerous path into
the criminal underworld.
Ben's unsure of where his loyalties
lie. They have to find a way to work together despite their differences.
Both men are drawn into the world of
Troy, a ruthless and brutal leader of an Organised Criminal Network.
Ben is torn between two worlds as he
tries to walk the impossible line between criminality and helping Ed combat
crime.
He lives in fear of discovery.
When your life is thrown upside down who do you turn to in order to survive?
Set against the backdrop of the 2012
Olympic Games, How the Wired Weep is a fast paced urban thriller where time is
against both men as they attempt to serve their own agendas.
My Thoughts:
First of all my thanks go to Emma Welton of damp pebbles blog tours for the opportunity to read this book as part of the blog tour. All opinions here are my own and unbiased.
I am always keen to find great new authors whose work I haven't read before. Especially in the crime genre I like a contemporary setting and this writer's work is exactly the kind of thing I enjoy reading. The voices of the two main characters are written perfectly, a young lad fresh from a spell at Her Majesty's Pleasure and the covert police operations team who try to encourage Ben to step across the line and help keep crime off the streets for the appropriate financial inducement. I was very much reminded of the young man who features in Imran Mahmood's book You Don't Know Me with the representation of a young man who has had to fit in with the social pressure from those around him which unfortunately has led to him falling foul of the law.
Ed wants nothing more than to persuade Ben (not his real name) to turn his back on the criminals who are dragging him into their dirty world of drugs, stabbings and guns. Some days he feels he is starting to make an impression then a few days later it becomes obvious Ben is in deeper than he's letting on with the criminal activities he's reporting back with.
It is crystal clear that the author has a personal insight into how things work in the world Ed and Ben inhabit and this reinforces the storyline to bring us a credible and at times quite emotional look at life in inner city estates. I was easily drawn in to their world throughout the book which was paced perfectly and I was hoping that Ben would realise that there is a different pathway he could take, away from the risk-taking downward spiral he appeared to heading for. It's all to easy to see how youngsters are tempted by the gang leaders to do their dirty work, with promises of bigger, better slices of the profits if they 'just do one more thing for them'. Often being products of the social care system with no other role models to base themselves on it's small wonder they end up in situations such as those we see Ben in.
Whilst controversial, the work Ed and his team do to try and infiltrate the criminal networks is valuable in trying to control the escalating crime figures. I found this a very interesting read with input from both sides as to why each of them was getting involved. There are some shocking scenes throughout the book which kept me on my toes as to what goes on in the real world and the conclusion had me turning the pages far later than I should have to find out how things would pan out for Ben and his mates.
A cracking read, and I am also interested to see that the author is having some of his previous work made in to a TV series which I will definitely be looking out for.
Purchase Links:
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/332xpRm
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3jRISKb
About the Author:
Rubicon is his debut novel and Stoned Love the second in the series.
Rubicon is in development with the BBC for a six part TV series.
He's appeared at Bloody Scotland in 2018 as a spot light author on the opening night with Val McDermid and Denise Mina.
Ian's undertaken a mentorship with Write4Film Scotland. He's also an ambassador for Muscular Dystrophy Scotland. He lives in Scotland where he divides his time between family, writing, reading and photography.
Social
Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IPatrick_Author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPatrickAuthor/
Website: https://www.ianpatrick.co.uk/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/ian_patrick_author
