Was so glad to be allowed to review this book! Given the fact I am a 1980' s child so was addicted to Grange Hill and Brookside, I was keen to start this book,
It is about a family who is torn in bits by the death of their sister and the way everyone deals with this. The subject matter is very current and is very relevant, I connected with the premise as Phil has set it in an everyday small town with the problems that best these type of places. Would recommend this book to anyone. Keep up the good work!! Loved it!!

Initially a difficult book for me to get into but I persevered and it was well worth it.
Janet Nolan was murdered in the centre of town. Still no-one knows who did it or why? Her brothers Joey and Sean want answers both working opposite lines of enquiry, one legal and one not so legal. This is a novel full of twists and turns taking us a walk through the somewhat murkier side of life and the supposed more legal political side.

Three years ago, Janey Nolan was murdered in the centre of town.

Today, no one knows who did it.

Sick of waiting for the powers that be to rid the streets and school gates of dealers, druggies and parasites, Janey’s brothers want to avenge her death. While Sean decides to explore the routes and corridors of political power, Joey chooses more direct action in and among the alleys and pathways of the neighbourhood itself.

But can the brothers find Janey’s killer without bringing more danger to their town?

First book from this author and it was bloody fantastic - I will be looking for more.

I was really looking forward to reading this book as is written by Grange Hill and Brookside creator, and fellow Scouser Phil Redmond.

It seemed to have all the right things for a good read. “One murder, Two brothers, both out for Revenge.” Sounded good.

I was disappointed. Not sure if its because this is a proof copy from Netgalley that i've read but it lost me at times.

Reading about one of the family for instance Natasha & Joey and all of a sudden without warning the next paragraph was about someone else completely, for instance Luke and Matt. I found I was continually backtracking to see if id missed something as it didn’t make sense.

The idea was good but the actual writing of it left a lot to be desired. All in all a disappointing novel.

I have been a fan of Phil Redmond since his Grange Hill and Brookside days and having read the novella of Highbridge was interested enough to read the full book.It is based around brothers Sean,Joey and their friends ex army Matt and Luke,Luke was married to the brothers sister Janey and when she is killed one night at an ATM then they set for revenge.It is set in a typical northern working class town and is a gritty tale of family life whilst still trying to do the right thing by Janey,although some of the story is hard to believe i still think Phil Redmond has wrote a good book and i can see the families getting into more trouble,all in all a 4 star read if you enjoy this genre.

I was really excited when I got my copy of this book as I am a huge fan of Phil Redmond but unfortunately I was rather disappointed. The story seemed to be a tangle of characters all with their own dramas which were linked however loosely to the main drama going on. It was a family story but lacked a strong enough thread holding it all together. I wasn't enamoured by the characters and felt no sense of suspense at the point where I guess I should have done. So sorry Phil I will carry on watching your tv stuff but won't be holding my breath for the next book.

I have read a fair few books that have been written by people coming from the world of television; writers, producers, even actors and there are a couple of things that have stood out for me in the majority of these books. They are all visual in nature and they can also seem a little episodic. By these things I mean that it is almost like they have written a novel that would easily be transferred to the small screen. This isn't really the point of a novel really. Books and TV programmes are two completely different media. To treat them the same would be doing both an injustice. If you write a book with a transfer to screen in the back of your mind I believe that you are missing out on a lot of stuff that only works in print and that means that, in my opinion, the book can never be as good as it could be. Now, that's not true of all the books I have read by such aforementioned authors but it is, to me anyway, true in this case. I'll cite a couple of obvious examples and then finish my rant. The chapters are long, way long, Kind of the same length that an episode of a mini-series would be and contain the right amount of the story for one too. There are also scenes within the chapters, switching often between different groups of characters, again like an episode.
Ok so, rant over. Ignoring all the above, which was easy once I got used to the writing/delivery style the story was good. I was interested, happy to invest my time reading it and quite enjoyed it. Set in a Northern town, we follow two brothers and the ex-husband of a lady who was killed in what appeared to be drug or other crime related incident. They have all gone their separate ways and the incident has obviously changed them differently and the are all handling it in their own ways, along with their families in some cases. It's a lot more than just about revenge or vigilantism. It's about seeing what is wrong with society and putting it right. Mostly outside the law. It gave quite a bit of food for thought as the community depicted in the book is typical of a lot of communities and shares the same problems that people like me could come up against.
Characters were well drawn. Not surprising given the author's pedigree but I did find them to be a little stereotypical. They were also on occasion too physically described. Again probably a throwback from screenplay days. The emotions they were going through did come across as real, as did the interactions between them. I especially liked the minor players - someone's been people watching in small villages methinks!
The ending, well, in true TV series tradition enough was settled to satisfy but some was left ambiguous... series two anyone ?
All in all, a solid read which, at the end of the day ticked quite a few boxes. Would I read series two if it came out? Not sure. Depends on my backlog and what else I have to read. Not saying no, just not saying yes at the moment.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.