Mitch Walker's week starts strangely enough when, half drunk, he finds himself intervening in an armed robbery. The bizarre outcome of this encounter does nothing to prepare him for what lies ahead in the coming days. Heart breaking events lead him down a dangerous path into the ruthless LA underworld, where his chances of survival are slim.
If you love edge of your seat tension, strap yourself in for Prior Violations
Prior Violations, Jonathan MacPherson
Having been lucky enough to be offered a copy of PRIOR VIOLATIONS for review I was intrigued to see it come with it's own curated Spotify music list. Made for a particularly unusual reading experience although the music would probably mean more to fans of American TV and movies, nearly all of which I've not seen.
PRIOR VIOLATIONS is the prequel novella to BRAZEN VIOLATIONS, both of them are high-octane, action based thrillers in styling, dark and violent with a believable, sympathetic central character. Given the restricted length of a novella, there's no mucking about with PRIOR VIOLATIONS, right from the start you're knee deep in some very dodgy goings on.
Not that Mitch Walker is a dodgy character, he's just down on his luck, jobless, and a bit lost; when his sister and his desperately ill nephew are involved in a hit and run, at the same time that a mildly pissed Mitch intervenes in an armed robbery in progress, and he goes from hero, to a heap of trouble in a very short space of time.
This novella leads onto a fuller story around Mitch in BRAZEN VIOLATIONS, where Mitch is still stepping in to help his family, generating a world of pain and complications for himself in the process. It's a nice balance of high-octane, big bad guys against one good guy in a fight for right style of storytelling. More than enough action, with a touch of a cinematic feel to it, there's also some human compassion to offset the "what the" moments. Not enough to make it a movie script in the reading, just enough to make you think about who would star in that movie should it ever come to pass.
PRIOR VIOLATIONS is a great read if you're a fan of big action, big threat, big everything styled thriller, especially if you don't mind your hero a bit on the flawed but good bloke side of humanity.