Review: The Crime Trade

The third from the amoral pen of Kernick starts in fourth gear at Heathrow Airport, just outside London. We are thrust into a drug bust that goes completely wrong. Kernick winks his eye to the motel scene in Scarface, as he introduces undercover officers ‘Stegs’ Jenner and Paul Vokerman. The two officers are part of a team involved in Operation Surgical Strike, organized to confront a gang of Columbian Cocaine smugglers. The Operation falls apart, with Vokerman getting a bullet in the back of the head while Jenner escapes into the wrath of his superiors. Kernick introduces his old team of DI Gallan and Malik as well as the young DS Tina Boyd. An underworld informer, ‘Slim’ Robbie (Kernick has a real knack for creating wonderful supporting characters) is murdered together with his mother in a council flat just as Operations Surgical Strike is happening, and so the tale unfolds. ‘Stegs’ Jenner wants revenge for the death of Vokerman, and early on we learn how they stood up to ganglord Frank Rentners and his torture team. Jenner has a plan, and one that his superiors know nothing about. Detective’s Gallan, Boyd and Malik on the other-hand are playing by the rules. They are on the trail of Slim Robbie’s murderers as well as men behind the Heathrow debacle, but their trail leads deep into London’s most ruthless gangs of criminals, for who life and death is merely part of the crime trade.

Hip, full of dialogue that is laugh-out-loud, amoral and un-PC; The Crime Trade is a much less darker book than the previous two, but only because the additional humour adds light to some of the darker moments, and there are plenty of those peppered between the covers. The real delight however is the sizzling dialogue and the gallows humour, which at times made me recall Higgins’s novel ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ which also entered the world of the small time hoodlum, trapped between the wheels of big-time organized crime. A fast and exhilarating read and one that will reinforce Kernick’s reputation.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Ali Karim - RAM

Mysteries

Book Review: The Crime Trade