DEAD NORTH by Joel Hames @joel_hames

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I've read and enjoyed most of Joel Hames's books, so downloaded this as soon as it was published.

Genre: Crime thriller, police procedural, murder

Sam Williams, mishap-prone lawyer and nancy Southerner, has been asked by Mancunian DI Roarkes to assist in the information gathering necessary to prosecute one Thomas Carson for shooting dead two police officers, up in the roughy-toughy, dark and dismal North West.  He leaves behind an unhappy girlfriend who is paying all the bills, largely due to Sam's inconsistent law career.  

Up in Manchester, Sam finds communication blockades whichever way he turns, dank and greasy hotels and pubs, food that is not much better, sexy designer-lawyer Serena who is also on the Carson case, an undercurrent of extreme danger/possible criminal gang intervention, and a not inconsiderable amount of resistance in the form of physical violence.

This is a most engagingly written book that I enjoyed, very much in places, though I didn't love it quite as much as The Art of Staying Dead and Victims, but that's just because it's more of a straight crime-solving-police-procedural type plot, which is not really my bag ~ my liking it slightly less is personal taste, not a reflection of the book's quality.  Indeed, that crime-solving-police-procedurals usually bore me witless but this didn't, is an indication of how good it is.

The story is action-packed with never a dull moment but a good balance of inner dialogue versus action, the plot is intricately worked out, the characters are clearly defined, and it carries with it Mr Hamer's usual wit and realistic dialogue.  Although part of the Sam Williams series, it's a stand alone, and any references made to other books/Sam's past are not at all confusing; the back story is woven in very well.

4* from me (ie, I liked it), with an extra half star in the interests of objective reviewing, because I believe it to be a jolly good example of its type.  I'd recommend it to any avid readers of well-written, well-plotted crime thrillers; you won't be disappointed.  Unless you're a particularly proud Mancunian, maybe 😉.

ANGEL MEADOW by Dean Kirby

4 out of 5 stars

Non-fiction: history of a 19th Century Mancunian slum

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

I have the paperback of this book, which is worth getting if you're into nicely produced hard copies.  Beautifully presented, with a section of old photographs and drawings from the time, in the middle.

Angel Meadow was a slum that evolved in Manchester, near the river Irk, at the time of the Industrial Revolution; once green fields and pastures and hedgerows, the cotton mills and factories brought forth the necessity to house its workers, which soon became 'Victorian Britain's most savage slum'.  Eventually, the area was occupied by drunks, tramps, hustlers, prostitutes, pickpockets, and just about every other type of criminal, as well as the people who worked in the mill.  Violence, hunger, early pregnancy, infant death and illness were the norm for the people ekeing out an existence, often living in such filthy conditions that it actually turned my stomach to read some parts.  Warning: don't read this while eating.  I did, alas...

Picture from the Friends of Angel Meadow website

The amount of intricate research that has gone into this book is apparent; there is scarcely a stone of the area unwalked, and there are many case histories taken from archives held by various institutions in the area.  A couple of reviews have said it relies on sensationalism, but many want to know about and wish to view this sort of historical horror with appalled fascination.  I'd like to say that it's unbelievable that thousands of people could be left to live as they did in this so-called civilised country, but it's not surprising, given the social structure of the Victorian age.  One thing that I couldn't understand, though, is why anyone stayed in such a living hell; however penniless a person is, surely a better life could have been had roaming the countryside.  Maybe some did think that, and left.  One teacher said:

"The parents are a disgrace to the city so far as their bodies are concerned.  Years of heredity have gifted these animals - for they are as unclean as monkeys, and their gestures and their learning unconscious of shame remind me irresistibly as apes - with peculiar characteristics which it will take a century of proper treatment to remove."

The book is split into chapters such as Family Life, The Cholera Riot, Living Conditions, etc.  The result is that it becomes a little repetitive; once you have read about the state of the lavatorial facilities in one group of houses, for instance, you don't really need to read it again, about the next street.  However, Dean Kirby has made a spectacularly good job of this book that he began to research after discovering that one of his forefathers had lived there.  An achievement, indeed.