Source: Review copy from No Exit Press for the Random Things blog tour – thank you!
I jumped at the opportunity to read this Irish crime debut from Mark Gyves, loving contemporary Irish fiction in general, and being a crime fan too. I will say at the outset that this novel is brutal! It is very gritty and violent, and has in its villain a predatory paedophile that I’ve not read the like of before – you have been warned – although I will avoid spoilers below. Underneath this visceral tale though is a human story, actually two: that of ‘The Boy’, and his father.
As the novel opens, The Boy who is never named, always just called ‘The Boy’, is grieving for his mother who died a short while ago. His father Daniel is grieving too, but crying into his pint at the pub mostly. The Boy who is twelve-years-old, has an older brother called Fallon whom he looks up to. Fallon is the right-hand-man of the local drugs baron, known as the Big Fella and has RA connections too. The Big Fella has the drugs scene in and around Cork sewn up, and things run smoothly with minimal interference from the Garda.
But all that is about to change.
For someone comes for the Big Fella, shoots him and his other sidekick Tonto, in a drive-by from a motorbike. Then they come for Fallon and arrive as he’s got off his own bike outside their home, he had taken The Boy with him to collect some cash from a secret stash buried in a wood. Fallon fights back, he shouts to The Boy to get to safety, and neighbour Brida bravely runs out brandishing her frying pan, but they manage to get shots off and get away, leaving Fallon to die in The Boy’s arms.
If Daniel wasn’t broken before, he is completely broken now, and abandons The Boy for the pub, The Boy is forced to move in with his grandparents. But he has the money they’d collected and he reckons he can find his way back to the wood. He and his best friend Gordon treat themselves to new games for the Playstation. But The Boy also has a heart of gold; he pays off his dad’s bar bill, and gives Brida enough money to keep the baliffs away as a thank you. However, it becomes clear that someone will come looking for the rest of the money, and they could be Fallon’s murderers. The Boy must wise-up and consider what to do, and we see the beginnings of his metamorphosis – at his tender age – into the next Big Fella and would-be avenger of his brother.
Sandwiched between The Boy’s chapters are several about his father Daniel, told in flashback, and more featuring the paedophile villain Clifford – whose own story will link with The Boy’s in several ways as the novel progresses. I’m not going to discuss Clifford’s role further. Instead, staying with Daniel briefly, who turns out to have been a mathematical and physics prodigy when younger, touring widely with his teacher and mentor. He finds he is technically useful to The Boy’s uncle Feargal, who has RA connections, but doesn’t like it. Then he met Marie; they married and later had twins – The Boy and The Girl – the latter being a victim of cot death. This was the first big blow to Daniel and he’ll go on to become a shell of the science genius he was before. This did feel slightly out of place, but takes your mind away from Clifford and the rest!
The Boy is someone who you can totally sympathize with, but Gyves’ characters also invoke a touch of the family feel of The Sopranos, in the relationships between The Big Fella and his sidekicks and enforcer Black Dave – all people you shouldn’t feel any good feeling for, but do – which makes the villain of the piece even more villainous. This is a powerful debut indeed, but very dark – you have been warned.
Source: Review copy – thank you. No Exit Press, trade paperback, 320 pages. BUY at Amazon UK or Waterstones via my affiliate links.
