IAIN RYAN - FOUR DAYS (2015)

Synopsis/blurb….

Four days to locate the killer. Four days to take revenge. Four days to find redemption.

Jim Harris is a hard-drinking detective on his way to a nervous breakdown. Every day, he works alongside corrupt cops and dangerous crooks. That is, until a brutal murder case unravels his career, bringing past indiscretions to light. Alone, afraid, and out of control, Harris makes a pact with himself: finish it.

"A streamlined epic of sex, violence and corruption told with lean, elegant prose and featuring a harrowing climax that will blister your eyeballs." -- Jedidiah Ayres, author of PECKERWOOD and FIERCE BITCHES

My second time around with Australian author Iain Ryan, after enjoying his short opener TWO DAYS late last year. Four Days more than lives up to the promise of that sampler.

Brisbane in the 80s, police corruption in spades, crime families in cahoots with plenty of pimping and prostitution, drink, drugs, murders, missing persons and a cop belatedly acquiring a conscience, whilst harbouring some dark and depressing family secrets. Plenty of sex - not all of it healthy – adding to a heady brew.

I doubt very much if there’s a totally likeable character populating the pages of this book, but if you like dark, broody and damaged and a peek at life on the wrong side of the street, you could do a lot worse than giving this one a spin.

Jim Harris, our main protagonist may have his faults, but he's aiming to secure some form of belated justice for the victims and put pay to some of the Brisbane brotherhood. An interesting flawed hero. 

Another notch on the Aussie/NZ Down Under reading challenge.

4.5 from 5

Four Days was reviewed at Crime Fiction Lover here.

Iain Ryan has his website here. You can catch him on Twitter – @iainkryan

His next offering is Drainland....... from his newsletter

#1 DRAINLAND is out August 2^nd, 2016. It’s about 250 pages or thereabouts. It’s a much bigger novel than FOUR DAYS (more characters, a bigger concept) but it’s not too long. I still don’t go long. 

#2 It looks like this:

One to look forward to!

FOUR DAYS - read in June, 2016. Bought last year at Amazon for Kindle.