Chris Barraclough Homepage Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Category:  Action/Thriller Type: Fiction Copyright: 1 Sep 2011 A tragic death in a tough Northern council estate leads to terrible violence, and the innocents trapped in the middle must work together to survive Award-winning author Chris Barraclough's tense thriller is set in the neglected heartland of Broken Britain. An accidental death in a notorious Northern council estate sets in motion a violent uprising, and the innocents caught in the middle must work together to survive. Crack is a sharp and shocking story that was highly praised by the judges of the Contact Publishing Page Turner Prize, where it was shortlisted for the top prize. It proved strangely prophetic, completed just months before the 2011 UK riots. Chris' debut novel Bat Boy won the UK Authors Award 2010 and was published to critical acclaim by UKA Press in Summer 2011 (available in paperback on Amazon). He followed it up with Dead Dogs, a darkly comic Albanian tale, which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Reader Award 2010. INCLUDES BONUS CONTENT: - Exclusive sneak peek at Bat Boy, Chris' award-winning debut novel - Meet the Author - 'Getting published for realsies' article - 'The Making of Crack' link Excerpt The windscreen fractured, his face pricked by fragments which leapt from the surface and sliced into his skin. A scream died somewhere deep in his throat. With eyes squeezed shut, he slammed his foot on the brake. Agony ripped through his muscle, crippling him from thigh to toe. His body jerked forward as the car shuddered and shook, until the belt snapped across his chest and brought him to a breathless halt, just half an inch from the steering column. Before he knew what had happened, he was crushed back into his seat. The world was silent again. Pang’s fingers were bleach-white, still wrapped around the top of the wheel. Every breath was agony. His ribs shifted in unnatural ways and his skull was vibrating, like someone had sideswiped him. His eyes remained shut. Aside from a tender hiss, the only sound he heard was approaching footsteps. Several sets, all running - and now voices across to his side. They were warped somehow, almost monstrous. Devils come to take me away. He forced his eyes open and stared at the remains of the glass. For now it held firm, but in total ruins. The point of impact was to his left, directly level with his eye-line. Something solid, probably the size of a bowling ball, had struck it at a terrific pace. Pointed cracks spread from the centre, thick and jagged at first, then thinning out like veins. “What happened?” His own voice sounded distant, as if someone outside had mumbled his words for him. Through the cobwebbed cracks, Pang made out black and white shapes that danced before his car. More voices. He heard them clear enough now the ringing had subsided. “Fuck, man. Aww, no way.” “Shit, look, Matty’s on his way.” Pang lifted a trembling hand and pulled on the handle by his elbow. He almost collapsed sideways out of the car as the door jarred open, but his foot found the tarmac in time. He heaved himself free. Miniature crystals leapt from his jacket and rained over his shoes. His fingers gripped the top edge of the door, his face creased at the agony that crawled beneath his knee. Forget the pain. Find out what happened. Someone darted past him, a man with skin as pale as milk. His long black coat billowed along behind him like Dracula’s cape, and an edge caught Pang on the cheek. As the man rounded the car, he began to scream. “Lindsey! Lindsey! Oh God, oh…” Pang inched around and stared at the cluster of people stood before him. They were gathered in a circle, their eyes fixed on the ground – except for the man in the black coat, who rocked back and forth on his knees, his hands clasped to his head. Pang dropped his gaze and noticed a leg protruding from the circle. The thing lay perfectly still, wrapped in a ragged stocking stained with dark crimson blotches. A perfect white trainer sat discarded on its side just a few feet beyond. Laces undone, the front of the sole hung open like a wide, gaping maw, frozen in a silent scream. No…no…this didn’t happen… Pang’s nails dug into the paint and scraped out deep trenches that gleamed silver underneath. The noise attracted the attention of the gathering. They turned and peered at him, four of them in total. The man in the black coat rose, his pale face drawn into his skull so his cheeks formed two hollow pits. He wasn’t a man at all. He must have been seventeen at most. The boy’s eyes were misted by tears. “You fucking killed my sister. You killed her!” No, Pang thought. No, you’re wrong. I couldn’t have. But nothing emerged from his throat. His body was rigid. He didn’t feel the icy breeze that whipped across his cheeks and smeared a strand of saliva down his chin. “What we gonna do with him,” asked one of the others, another kid. They were all kids, every one of them. Their complexions twisted with horror and loathing. Pang’s focus drifted between them until dark spots spoiled his vision. He recognised them. Terrence, the boy he’d come here for. Terrence and the whole fucking gang...

eBookanoid
I have just finished reading Crack by Chris Barraclough, a young British writer to write a reeview of it on my blog eBookanoid and have to report that I enjoyed every minute of it.

It literally starts with a bang, and then simply keeps going at a very rapid pace right up to the end, with almost no let up in the action, good fun too.

The main characters in this story, both good and bad, all lived for me, and obviously had lives outside the book - if you see what I mean. What is called a "back story" in America I believe. And as mentioned above, the events in this ebook describe in part, the frightening and mindless violence that took place in Britain a few months after its publication... I kept having to check the publication date to reassure myself that he hadn't in fact written this ebook after the riots.... But nope, he has put his finger all too accurately on what seems to me to have been the main cause of those riots.

So, while this ebook has the appearance of a simple thriller, it actually is much more than that, it is an examination of the effects of anomie in society, and the resulting breakdown in public order and values. Very scary stuff in fact.

Thus not a book about drug dealers as its title had led me to expect.

So if you like books that are written in the style of thrillers, but actually have much deeper ideas in them, then this is the book for you, but be prepared to have to read it in one go if possible, as its pace is so frenetic and the events pile up one on the other so rapidly that you wont want to put it down until you have finished it.