You can buy "The gathering of the seven stars"......Here
The blurb...
A multi million pound Football betting scam appears to be a front for something much more sinister when a brutally tortured body is discovered. Twelve years earlier Europe's Chinese Communities reported a large increase in crime and disorder and now it's happening all over again. DS Oscar Smiles, returning from compassionate leave, must deal with the ghosts from his past and put aside his personal worries as a notorious underworld figure battles with a Triad gang to control the dragon Gate area of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
My Review..
Somethings rotten in Newcastle. A body is found having suffered numerous cuts. He is soon linked to Newcastle Football Club and illegal Chinese gambling. Enter the unlikely duo of DS Oscar Smiles, clean freak with OCD. His parents have recently passed away and he is a little lost. A sensitive, touchy feely type, but with a very logical mind and his boss. DI McGovern, his boss, is slovenly, fat, slightly racist and misogynist Glaswegian, divorced 1970s throwback. In no time they are on the trail but the bodies begin to rack up as they bump up against each other in pursuit of the killer.
There are several suspects including a local Chinese man done good and bully boy loan shark intent on moving up in the underworld.
This is a cracking provincial city, police procedural. The author clearly loves his city including the more dodgy parts. The book is definitely a work of fiction because at one point it says that Newcastle went top of the league! ha ha lol.
The characters and tone are spot on for me. Tough, slightly seedy backdrops. (A particular favourite scene was the kaleidoscope of chaos at a Social Security Office.) The author is a Housing Officer and one can only speculate as to some of the scenes over the years that he has snuck into this book. The mixture of realism, dark humour and caricature are an intoxicating mixture.
The book gathers pace as the bodies rack up, new characters are introduced and back stories are filled in.
I can envisage McGovern and Smiles developing into a long running series. Cant wait for book 2!
Selected quotes...
"There's a lot going on. McGovern chimed in, in his usual thoughtless manner, Yes son, far too many turds for one toilet."
"There was such a thing as having to much to say. Which could be translated as boring the fucking pants off someone. Sometimes he needn't wonder how Oscar was still single."
"His few strands of grey combed over his skull in memory of his hair."
"He is the best XangQi player this side of the Great Wall and I mean the Chinese one not Hadrian's one down the road"
About the author....
Andrew James Graham was born and brought up in the town of Wallsend, North Tyneside.
The Gathering of the Seven Stars is his debut crime thriller.
The working class son of a former shipyard worker he has used his many years experience working as a Housing support officer in some of the most socially and economically deprived areas of Tyneside for inspiration in his writing.He is unfortunately a supporter of Newcastle United Football Club.
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