Review copy

A few weeks back I read Laughing Boys Shadow, an early work from Steven Savile. This time Steven has teamed up with Scott Lockley for a taste of a series of thrillers the two have concocted featuring a former military bloke named Jack Stone.

Northern Soul is a relatively short novel and a follow-up to the novella, Northern Grit. It's not really necessary to have read Northern Grit first, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

Northern Soul is set in familiar territory for a Savile novel; in and around his beloved Newcastle, England.

When an elderly friend is being squeezed by a loan shark, Jack makes a deal to erase the debt if he can find an aging backup singer named, Sindy Nightingale. You see, Nightingale supposedly owes the loan shark big time. Only, nothing is what it seems and the story is full of twists and turns.

What really made Northern Soul enjoyable for me were the characters in this story, from Jack's war buddy roommate, Danny, to the myriad of criminal types he has to deal with, especially, Robbie, a low life flunky that Jack continuously outwits and inflicts pain on numerous times.

When all was said and done, the story was entertaining and resolved in a completely satisfying manner. I wouldn't mind taking up with Jack Stone again somewhere down the road.

Northern Soul is available now from Crossroad Press and Amazon.com and although not my usual horror fare, I can certainly recommend this one. ( )