Written by the journalist Mike Peake.
Riveting Prequel
I hugely enjoyed Attwood's previous book Hard Time, the author's gripping account of his hellish stay in a US jail following his arrest on drug charges, and Party Time is the much-anticipated prequel that fills in a lot of the blanks.
His story really begins when he arrives as a young hopeful from the north west of England in Arizona with a dream to make a million - but he is soon yearning for the rave scene he so enjoyed back home... and the drugs that went with it. Working overtime to make it as a stockbroker, Attwood begins burning the candle at both ends as his party-mad alter ego comes to the fore, and with the pill-popping comes pill-trading, followed by big money, an entourage, a growing reputation as the town's main Ecstasy-dealer and, inevitably, a cast of nefarious characters lurking in the wings. The ambitious young man from Widnes becomes increasingly paranoid as a succession of people let him down, and when his local supremacy is challenged by violent rival gangs he realises that this is not the world he envisioned. There's no easy way out, though, when so much money and so many friendships are at stake, and his growing sense of unease/desperation is palpable. I'd have liked more information about the amounts of money that changed hands, and I also found some of his 'posse' hard to engage with, but this is a great, cautionary tale about what can happen when ambition becomes entwined with a life of crime - and a seemingly-decent guy finds himself immersed much, much deeper than he bargained for. Recommended.
Party Time on Amazon UK
Party Time with Free Worldwide Delivery
Party Time Kindle USA
Shaun Attwood
Riveting Prequel
I hugely enjoyed Attwood's previous book Hard Time, the author's gripping account of his hellish stay in a US jail following his arrest on drug charges, and Party Time is the much-anticipated prequel that fills in a lot of the blanks.
His story really begins when he arrives as a young hopeful from the north west of England in Arizona with a dream to make a million - but he is soon yearning for the rave scene he so enjoyed back home... and the drugs that went with it. Working overtime to make it as a stockbroker, Attwood begins burning the candle at both ends as his party-mad alter ego comes to the fore, and with the pill-popping comes pill-trading, followed by big money, an entourage, a growing reputation as the town's main Ecstasy-dealer and, inevitably, a cast of nefarious characters lurking in the wings. The ambitious young man from Widnes becomes increasingly paranoid as a succession of people let him down, and when his local supremacy is challenged by violent rival gangs he realises that this is not the world he envisioned. There's no easy way out, though, when so much money and so many friendships are at stake, and his growing sense of unease/desperation is palpable. I'd have liked more information about the amounts of money that changed hands, and I also found some of his 'posse' hard to engage with, but this is a great, cautionary tale about what can happen when ambition becomes entwined with a life of crime - and a seemingly-decent guy finds himself immersed much, much deeper than he bargained for. Recommended.
Party Time on Amazon UK
Party Time with Free Worldwide Delivery
Party Time Kindle USA
Shaun Attwood
No comments:
Post a Comment