Review: `Don't let your tongue be your worst enemy.' - John `Sonny' Franzee
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2014
British author Andy Christopher debuts with a crime novel that reeks with atmosphere. Though Christopher has studied advanced English and been writing for a while, this appears to be his first published novel. A singer, music teacher, and triathlon competitor he knows his way around an assortment of types and he has settled on creating a book makes both a generalized statement about crime as well as a story about the influence of family in CANNONSIDE - a fictional borough in North London, England.There is something about the way the Brits write about crime that holds fascination for everyone: think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Scottish Robert Lewis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Willkie Collins The Moonstone, etc. The uniting factor seems to be an appreciation for the mind of the criminal as well as the constituents of the mind of a non-criminal that could criminally change under the right circumstances. Christopher goes there in this novel and while it has not the polish of the greats -yet - the seeds are there.Christopher opens his book in medias res with a two brothers - the powerful criminal Jimmy and the innocent Ollie - and a driver named Roberto and Dillon, partner to Jimmy - on the way to the brothers' grandfather's funeral when they are ambushed by the rival criminal gang of Cannonside.  Ollie witnesses a gangland murder, flees the scene only to gradually become involved with the world of crime when circumstances evolve that place his wife Sophie in jeopardy. Jimmy's pulling Ollie into the `family of crime' succeeds in Ollie's first murder and from there the life of crime seems the inevitable direction.Andy Christopher has a fine sense of writing dialogue: indeed his entire story is practically related through dialogue instead of description, a technique of writing that finds Christopher comfortable and assured. Time and exposure will likely polish the character development skills, but he already demonstrates an affinity for his chosen trade. Grady Harp, April 14