Reviewed by: Keith Nixon
Genre: Crime
Approximate word count: 30-25,000 words
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Author:
Martin
Stanley studied to be a graphic designer. A love of crime fiction at an early
age led Martin to start writing. He has previously released two novels and a
short story collection.
You can
learn more about the author at his blog.
Description:
The Stanton
brothers return in the multi-stranded noir crime novella. Local thug Terry
Allbright is being set up, but doesn’t know it. The Stanton brothers are after
£50,000 of Terry’s money, generated through selling drugs, but there are plenty
of equally bad guys out to stop the pair. As the best laid plan goes awry the
brothers have to fight their way out. Whatever it takes.
Appraisal:
I’ve previously reviewed two of the author’s works which followed
the actions of the Stanton brothers. Both were strong and entertaining – this
latest follows in their footsteps with ease.
I really like the Stanton brothers as characters. They’re like
modern day Robin Hood and Little John, except they steal from the criminal rich
and keep it for themselves. However the brothers also have a softer side to
them, typically righting a human wrong on someone else’s behalf – provided it
generates a return for them.
Bone Breakers is this time written in the third
person, giving the narrative a different twist on the previous outings. The
prose has a hard edge – there are plenty of violent scenes and a heavy dose of
swearing. But these fit with the situation, neither are utilized for the sake
of it. Besides the Stantons the author paints some great secondary characters
as well – all are less than salubrious. I particularly liked Dave ‘Bell End’
Bellman.
Over the first quarter of Bone
Breakers the author introduces several characters. In the opening chapter
local thug Terry Albright takes over a takeaway for his own purposes, ensuring
the owner, Al, does as he wants by carrying out some pretty nasty persuasion
techniques on Al’s son Danny. Then we meet another dodgy character, Tommo, who
picks up a girl in a bar but she is much more trouble than he initially
envisaged.
Finally the Stanton brothers enter stage left once all the cards
are stacked. As usual the grand plan doesn’t quite work out as expected and the
pair have to use some creative ideas to extract themselves from the position
they’re in, with a deal of black humour thrown in.
All in all Bone Breakers
was a fast paced, highly entertaining read. Anyone liking the seamier side of
crime fiction would do well to pick this up.
FYI:
Plenty of swearing and violence.
Format/Typo Issues:
None.
Rating: **** Four stars
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