Trouble Man
Published on 8. January 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-0-09-958454-4 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award
It's Manchester, at the close of the millennium, and Henry Bane is now manager of an exclusive nightclub. He has a beautiful mistress, a teenage son, and is making moves in a violent underworld to which he is increasingly numbed.
When a young girl is found tortured and unwilling to go to the police, Bane offers to help, and finds horror in a feral community with a respectable veneer. But, by meddling, he ends up endangering those he wants to protect. Not only that, he also manages to incur the wrath of an ailing ganglord, and soon finds himself tangled in a penthouse robbery and an underground boxing match.
Trouble Man takes Bane through a hell, perhaps of his own making, where he is pushed to his limit - and the trouble only gets closer to home.
It's Manchester, at the close of the millennium, and Henry Bane is now manager of an exclusive nightclub. He has a beautiful mistress, a teenage son, and is making moves in a violent underworld to which he is increasingly numbed.
When a young girl is found tortured and unwilling to go to the police, Bane offers to help, and finds horror in a feral community with a respectable veneer. But, by meddling, he ends up endangering those he wants to protect. Not only that, he also manages to incur the wrath of an ailing ganglord, and soon finds himself tangled in a penthouse robbery and an underground boxing match.
Trouble Man takes Bane through a hell, perhaps of his own making, where he is pushed to his limit - and the trouble only gets closer to home.
Reviews / Votes
Frenetic page-turning tension and mystery... Sometimes nasty, sometimes funny, sometimes knowing in its comment about the rampant misogyny that pervades the underworld. It's a great read, dark and filled with pace. -- Nikesh Shukla * We Love This Book * Seamy, tough and reeking with authenticity, it's grimly fascinating. -- Deirdre O'Brien * Sunday Mirror * Ultra-noir... depicts the criminal underbelly of Manchester with force and style. Good story, superior characterisation, convincingly bleak atmosphere. -- Marcel Berlins * The Times * Exhilarating prose, gut-wrenching violence and plenty of soul in dystopian Manchester. -- Cath Staincliffe It shines a light on Manchester's violent underworld, as a nightclub owner finds himself dragged into ever-more-depraved places amid a backdrop of murders. * Mr Hyde * An extremely well-paced piece of writing. * Bookmunch * This is gritty stuff... Benn's prose is fat-free, sinewy, not a wasted syllable. * UK Press Syndication * Manchester's Irvine Welsh... Authentic but grim. -- Natasha Harding * Sun * Benn transcends genre... [Trouble Man] is powerful fare. * Good Book Guide *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
235 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-958454-4 (9780099584544)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Tom Benn was born in 1987, and grew up in Stockport. He is a graduate of the UEA Creative Writing MA and was the recipient of the 2009 Malcolm Bradbury bursary. His first novel, The Doll Princess, was shortlisted for the 2012 Dylan Thomas Prize and the Portico Prize, and longlisted for the Crime Writers' Association's John Creasey Dagger. Chamber Music was published in 2013.