Trouble Man
Published on 9. January 2014
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-0-224-09816-8 (ISBN)
Description
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.
From the casual sexism of Bane's clubland, to the savage misogyny of a killer targeting the young and dispossessed, 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.
Tom Benn 'does for low-life Manchester what Trainspotting did for Leith' (Maggie Fergusson, Intelligent Life) and has created a teeming underworld of extraordinary criminals, victims and possible heroes - all with their own brilliantly rendered vernacular - and a noir backdrop of rain, city streets, sharp diagonals of light and very long shadows.
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.
From the casual sexism of Bane's clubland, to the savage misogyny of a killer targeting the young and dispossessed, 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.
Tom Benn 'does for low-life Manchester what Trainspotting did for Leith' (Maggie Fergusson, Intelligent Life) and has created a teeming underworld of extraordinary criminals, victims and possible heroes - all with their own brilliantly rendered vernacular - and a noir backdrop of rain, city streets, sharp diagonals of light and very long shadows.
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 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 143 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
466 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-224-09816-8 (9780224098168)
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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.