Sunday 26 September 2021

Book Review | All Down The Line by Andrew Field | prettylittlewriter

 Thank you to Boomslang Books for my copy.

Synopsis

‘MANCHESTER: Cain Bell thought he had closure over his daughter’s hit and run death after Ted Blake confessed he was behind the wheel just before he died.

Fast forward twenty years and Cain’s fiancĂ©e claims the driver was lying. Before she can say more, a savage attack leaves her in a coma fighting for her life. To make sense of the assault, Cain must discover why four friends swore blind to never reveal the tragic truth about the circumstances surrounding the killing of his daughter.

He can only succeed if he persuades Manchester’s most terrifying gangster to talk. But Billy McGinty is in no mood to break his own wall of silence.

Somehow Cain must convince him to spill the beans, even if it means putting his own life on the line.’

This is one of those novels that can put you off finishing if you struggle with the writing style. To me, Field has a very clipped and erratic writing style, which I found difficult to get into, as it felt a bit all over the place. There are a lot of different characters to get to know, and occasionally I found myself unsure as to who was actually speaking.

 

The characters themselves were very well developed. I felt like I knew exactly the type of people they were, especially through the way they spoke. The Mancunian accent was prominent throughout. I don’t think we were supposed to like any of the characters besides Cain, which was definitely how I felt.

 

I’m not very familiar with Manchester myself as I’ve only visited a couple of times when I was younger, however, the way it is described is very vivid and I’m sure if you were more familiar with the area, it would be a great ode to the city.

 

I felt so incredibly sorry for Cain. He had been through so much already after losing his daughter, to then potentially losing his soon-to-be wife on the night of their engagement. And to top it off, there was a huge secret she was keeping from him that she was about to tell him before she went into a coma that he was desperate to find out, as it related to his daughter.

 

Once I’d gotten into the rhythm of Field’s writing, the storyline starting opening up and became increasingly interesting, along with some twists and turns that I did not expect! However, I did figure out who really killed his daughter quite near the beginning of the novel, as that seemed to be where it was heading.

 

Overall, I enjoyed the storyline and the ending of the novel, however, I did struggle with the writing, and found myself not necessarily looking forward to reading it because of this. I wouldn't say it's a bad book, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I have other crime novels.

 

3/5 stars




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