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A review by ljwrites85
Breaking Bones by Robert White
4.0
This book follows the story of The Three Dogs, Tony Thompson, Eddie Williams and Frankie Verdi, the most feared gang on the street of early eighties Preston.
Now this is a book slightly out of my comfort zone (only slightly though). I’m not really a huge fan of gangster type books and I have to be honest from the blurb I thought it was going to be of a police thriller but it ended up being focused on the gang itself. I was quite surprised that I ended up enjoying it.
Although the book had a lot of violence, with almost graphic detail at times, but it had me close to tears on several occasions which was a bit of a shock.
I thought the author paid good attention to detail, using really historical events and adding them into the story to give it authenticity.
I enjoyed the fact that every character was unique and complicated too. Like for instance, Tony, Eddie and Frankie were violent psychopaths but they had their own individual traits. Frankie was power hungry, Tony was a little ‘slow’ (author’s words not mine) with a surprising soft side and Eddie was secretly gay.
The only thing that I didn’t really enjoy was the policeman, Jim Hacker’s, perspective. Written in the first person, it felt more like it was telling me things in the way of a narrator than being part of the story. The best way I can describe it was a bit like someone pausing the TV in the middle of a programme just to explain things to you when you don’t really want them to. I would have preferred the detective to have been more part of the story than a casual bystander.
Overall this is a story that will suck you into a different place and time and not let you go even after you’ve finished the book.
Now this is a book slightly out of my comfort zone (only slightly though). I’m not really a huge fan of gangster type books and I have to be honest from the blurb I thought it was going to be of a police thriller but it ended up being focused on the gang itself. I was quite surprised that I ended up enjoying it.
Although the book had a lot of violence, with almost graphic detail at times, but it had me close to tears on several occasions which was a bit of a shock.
I thought the author paid good attention to detail, using really historical events and adding them into the story to give it authenticity.
I enjoyed the fact that every character was unique and complicated too. Like for instance, Tony, Eddie and Frankie were violent psychopaths but they had their own individual traits. Frankie was power hungry, Tony was a little ‘slow’ (author’s words not mine) with a surprising soft side and Eddie was secretly gay.
The only thing that I didn’t really enjoy was the policeman, Jim Hacker’s, perspective. Written in the first person, it felt more like it was telling me things in the way of a narrator than being part of the story. The best way I can describe it was a bit like someone pausing the TV in the middle of a programme just to explain things to you when you don’t really want them to. I would have preferred the detective to have been more part of the story than a casual bystander.
Overall this is a story that will suck you into a different place and time and not let you go even after you’ve finished the book.