He started with novels. And some very good novels too. A couple of years back I'd picked (or had chosen by the book group) a string of not good books and was starting to wonder why I bothered reading. Then I picked up my copy of Mr In Between by Mr Cross and found my reading mojo again within three pages.
Neil Cross is one hell of a writer when he goes for it. He creates mostly believable characters - and manages to give his less solid creations good solid reasons for being the way they are so disbelief is always well and truly suspended whilst buried in the worlds he creates. Occasionally, you might start picking at plot holes later on, but never anything that spoils the experience.
This book is no exception. A revenge thriller that never quite goes the way you expect it to. Taut and lean prose, this is a page turner par excellence. There are scenes of incredible tension and moments of true emotional depth. There is a slight saggy section in the middle, but not to any real detriment.
The story follows William Holloway - a cop who pops up in one of his previous novels if I'm not completely mistaken. He's suffered a breakdown several years earlier when he found out his wife was cheating on him and done things he probably shouldn't have done. Now the prostitute he's been paying to pretend to be his ex-wife has been kidnapped and murdered, and Holloway is in the frame.
Mixed in with this story is a man who faked his own death, a conspiracy theorist and a fake messiah... How the plot strands interweave and interconnect is quite remarkable and eminently readable.
If you like well written twisty-turny, gritty thrillers, pick this up if you can find it. I think I only have three more of his books to read and I'll have read all of them. I hope he gets a new publisher soon. I want more.
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