Swear Down - Softcover

Litten, Russ

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781252017 ISBN 13: 9781781252017

Publisher: Tindal Street, 2014

Synopsis

A young gang leader is found stabbed on a Hackney estate, but two people confess to the murder.

Ndekwe, an ambitious, newly promoted Detective Sergeant within a subtly racist police force, believes the more obvious of the two from McKenzie, a teenager from the estate with a police record of juvenile crime.

But why does Jack Shepherdson, an ex-merchant seaman in his sixties, come forward with his own confession? Is he covering for McKenzie, his colleague in the bar they worked at? Or is there more truth in his statement than Ndekwe at first believes?

As we listen, with Ndekwe, to their stories, to the lives of the segregated and unheard, a heart-breaking and suspenseful story emerges.

About this title

About the Author

Russ Litten has written drama for television, radio and Hollywood film. He currently works as a writer in prisons and lives with his family in Kingston Upon Hull.

Review

Compelling and utterly convincing, this is real life, not just a crime novel -- Jake Arnott Russ Litten has taken guidance and lessons from the great modern Americans - Richard Price, Elmore Leonard - and the concrete walkways and stairwells and gaols and dives of this septic isle and has written a gripping, magnificently paced book that, for four days, accompanied me from bar to bench to bath to bed. It is superb. -- Niall Griffiths A gritty urban crime thriller ... Litten invests craft and energy in establishing the individual voices .. it's easy to imagine Swear Down being successfully adapted for television Metro Subtle, moving and disturbing Guardian A thrilling and sometimes darkly comic look at lives lived on the margins -- Nick Quantrill Hull Daily Mail

Edition details

• Publisher: Tindal Street
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781252017
• ISBN 13: 9781781252017
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288