Red Menace

LoveReading Says

Blending crime fiction with recent political history, and mixing fictional characters with real-life figures — among them major 80s musicians and Margaret Thatcher — Joe Thomas’ Red Menace presents gritty evocations of grim truths about 80s Britain, among them growing social divides, social discontent and corruption.

Second in the United Kingdom trilogy, it kicks off in July 1985, when Britain seem set to burn as Live Aid sets out to save the world. As Margaret Thatcher rolls out her vote-enticing right-to-buy project, there’s corruption around the development of London’s Docklands, not too far from Parker’s Hackney patch. He’s a “spy op” for the local police, though “sometimes it’s difficult to know whether he’s spying on the cops or the robbers.” Unofficially, “he’s on the sniff for anything dodgy out of Stoke Newington nick.” And there’s certainly a lot of dodginess going down, not to mention a sense that the country is about to explode.

Alongside being a punchy page-turner, Red Menace also packs political punch that’ll resonate with readers who lived through the eighties, and crime fiction fans who appreciate novels that stretch the genre’s boundaries.

Joanne Owen

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