Book Review- Crusher by Niall Leonard

Title: Crusher

 Author:  Niall Leonard

Published:  13 September 2012 by Random House

Warnings: sex and violence, 14 upwards.

Source: publisher

Other info: His wife wrote the infamous 50 Shades Trilogy. This is the first in a series.

Summary : To catch a killer,Finn Maguire may have to become one....Everything changed the day Finn found his father in a pool of blood, bludgeoned to death. His dull, dreary life is turned upside downas he become's the prime suspect. How can he clear his name and find out who hated his dad enough to kill him?
Facing danger at every turn, uncovering dark family secrets and braving the seedy London underworld,Finn is about to discover that only the people you trust can really hurt you....

Review: After another day at his dead-end job, Finn Maguire comes home to find his dad has been killed. With the lack of other DNA and other fingerprints, and because hte police have no one else ot go on, he is pinned as prime suspect. Now on his own, Finn has to try and clear his name. By doing so, he gets pulled into his family history, gang politics, rivalries, and various other sorts of danger.

I don’t normally read crimey things but I think I should, as I quite enjoy it when I do. There’s always interesting things happening and they’re often unpredictable.  Crusher is like this. I wouldn’t really call it fun, but I like it. There’s definitely a thrill.

It all gets going quite quickly, with the murder and  establishing Finn’s situation done within the first few chapters. The story then develops at the same fast pace throughout.

A thing stolen from my latin friend is the expression of interest levels on an updowny scale. The interest levels for this are high at the start, low middle at the middle,  middle a bit further, and high at the end. Thrill levels follow this pattern too. There’s some incredibly boring bits, and then there’s other bits which you just have to read on, including the scene from which (I assume) Crusher gets its name.

The women in  Crusher were the most interesting. Zoe seemed nice enough, but it didn’t work out well in the end (because it’s written by a guy? Most books written by men feature romances that don’t work out, women tend to write ambiguous or happy endings. A post for later?). Else, I  knew there was something off about her, but what happened at the end was totally unexpected and in any future novels, she should definitely have a major part in them. Finn’s mother is very secretive, and the ending finishes off Crusher well.

Finn, you do feel sorry for when you think about all he goes through. He is surprisingly clever despite his introduction as a dead end boy, and he thinks on his feet well. The whole danger from all sides is ok ish. It’s interesting, but also not in a way. It’s hard to describe. I do like the fact that the separate plots all come together after a lot of guessing.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a thriller with a lot of ups and downs.

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