The Man on the Street

"when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose."

The Man on the Street is the debut novel by Trevor Wood and what a debut.

Set in Woods hometown of Newcastle we follow the story of Jimmy who is a homeless veteran suffering from PTSD after being in the Falkland's war, this is a great gritty detective thriller that holds no punches as to what life is like living on the streets.

The characters are all vibrant and colourful especially Jimmy and Carrie the two main leads who's relationship builds through out the book and the chemistry between them flows of the page.
The story is very good and leads you down many roads with a few twist and turns and keeps you guessing right up till the very end.
Jimmy is a great character and one I would very much like to encounter again in a future book perhaps.
A great read well worth your time and hard earned cash.

My thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was most impressed by this debut novel set in his hometown of Newcastle from Trevor Wood it’s a real gritty thriller with a fabulous lead character in Jimmy who is homeless has one hell of a past and yet someone who you immediately start to root for so well is he portrayed. The writing and the plot line is excellent and I loved the dialogue especially between Jimmy and his mates, although he is certainly a hard man we also see another side to Jimmy a caring side that because of his past he finds difficult to show and I would;ld love to hear more of him in any future books.
So I would say if you want a clever thriller with some great characters then you really do have it here and I look forward to reading more from this excellent author. Highly recommended.
My thanks to Trevor Wood, NetGalley and Quercus Books for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was hooked from the start. This is a really good read. There is a lot of suspense and good strong characters. Jimmy has been through a lot. The issues tackled in this book are really well written. I would definitely recommend this book and read more books by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Trevor Wood writes gritty Northern crime fiction set in Newcastle that introduces us to an unusual central protagonist in Jimmy Mullen, a Falklands veteran, suffering from PTSD, for which he has refused to seek help, whose life has gone down the pan. He is homeless on the dangerous streets, with his two friends, Gadge, who has a drink problem and the young Deano, who finds drugs hard to resist. Jimmy himself does not drink, he has nightmares, hallucinations, and flashbacks to what happened in the war, understandably finding the night a traumatising experience, often screaming in his sleep. He is divorced from his wife, she couldn't handle him on his return from war, he feels the loss of not seeing his daughter, having completely missed out on her growing up years. In a narrative that shifts from the past and the present, we learn of what happened to Jimmy through the years that preceded his life on the streets.

Jimmy wakes up in the middle of a dark night, and hears two men having an argument by the river, followed by a splash. Unsure if it is real, Jimmy's attitude, if it is real, is that it his not his fight, something he has learned the hard way, and resolves to forget the matter. That is until he sees a headline in which a young woman, Carrie, makes a plea for news of her father, Roger Carpenter. She reminds him of his lost daughter, as he feels the tug of conscience and gets in touch with her. He is not certain it was her father, but she manages to persuade him to make a statement to the police. The police are dismissive and not inclined to believe the testimony of a homeless man, so Carrie turns to the local press. When Jimmy's photograph is published in the press, he is not a happy man, and for good reason, as his troubling personal history comes back to bite whilst simultaneously, he and Carrie have to face the dangers of digging into her father's past.

Wood does an excellent job in portraying the challenges, obstacles and misfortune that have blighted a trauma and PTSD afflicted Jimmy after what he experienced in the Falklands. This is a predicament that has been the lot of many a soldier returning from war, with many ending up homeless. Jimmy is essentially a good man, who finds himself once again taking on someone else's fight, and he pursues the investigation with unwavering determination and focus, refusing to cave in to deadly threats and dangers. This is a compulsively gripping crime read, a particular highlight is depiction of what life is like being homeless, so often the target of brutal violence, not just from the public, but even on occasion from the police. The homeless are so often invisible, unfairly judged, viewed threw the prism of harsh stereotypes and constantly harassed. If you enjoy gritty crime fiction, then I recommend this highly. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

Congratulations to Trevor Wood, great story line with an insight into life on the streets. The story revolves around a trio of homeless men, Jimmy with his dog, Gadge and Dino, each with different talents. The story keeps the reader fully engrossed till the very end of this story.