I had heard great things about this book, a look into the modern city of London, and how close the underbelly actually is to the surface.
The writer takes his time, patiently telling a tale that has a lot more levels than you expect. I have never read this author before but I was pleasantly surprised at the fully documented and deeply researched material available. Having this available made a damning case against the city, and its relationship with crime and money.
The style of storytelling meant that chapters would sometimes begin with events far in the past, and at first felt only tangentially related, but the author slowly made the way back to the current events and it was a little like you were making the connections, rather than him.
There are a lot of people to keep track in this book – especially on the criminal underworld side – and sometimes I had to puzzle out and remember who they were. Some photos would have been nice to help organize them in my mind – later I found some online to help me out.
But this book was great and hopefully will have some long-term effects on cleaning up the city. Thanks to the writer’s patient approach it became a story that I couldn’t put down. I’ll never forget to last image that he left us with, Zac waving to his family from the balcony of the Riverwalk building.
Next I am reading Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer.
