John Ray grew up in a mob family but decided to go straight. When he was a kid, he secretly wanted to be a cop. He went to Cambridge, got a degree in accounting and didn't want to go back to his home town of Leeds. His dad and brother worked out of a car dealership, using that as their cover for their "business dealings".

John went back for a visit and while standing in the dealership with his dad and brother, his brother was shot and died. His dad was old and was put into a nursing home. John stayed and turned the dealership into a legitimate business.

Things were going well for awhile until a prostitute was found dead in the trunk (boot) of one of his cars. Because it was one of John's cars and because of his family background, he was the top suspect. When asked where he was on the night of the murder, he did have an alibi, he was sleeping with one of their detectives. Their next suspect, was Freddie Metcalf, John's one and only salesman. John knew that
Freddie couldn't have murdered the girl, so he decided to investigate the murder on his own, giving the cops the information that he found.

The book was good with interesting characters. I will be looking forward to more books from John Barlow. ( )

"Hope Road" by John Barlow is the story of a used car salesman, who is the white sheep of the family. His father and brother were rackateers and general criminals. Well, not general, they were at the top of the heap. John Ray is the 'good son' who goes to college and tries to make good. He is running his father's former front business of selling cars, when his saleman gets arrested for murdering a prostitute and dealing fake money. John Ray must solve the crime to get his salesman/friend out of jail and the right person fingered so that the crime boss (who happens to be the hooker's father) can kill the right guy.
"Hope Road" is written in the style of Lee Child and David Ellis. Tough as nails main character who you don't wanna mess with and he, of course, can figure out even the most cunning of plans. It's a pretty good book. The end I didn't especially like, but the rest was good. I might mention that it is British, which really doesn't matter except the phrasing and slang is a bit different. Sometimes I would have to read some of the wording a second time to make sure I got what was said. I recieved this e-book for free from www.librarything.com. ( )

Not written in the usual style I'd read, I wasn't sure if I could keep going at the very beginning, but I was easily pulled in to the crime and mystery behind it. Who did the actual deed? Is the main suspect telling the truth? What's he hiding? We ask these questions all the time in these kinds of novels, but we stop asking them as the book goes on, usually because we've figured out what it is that's going on. When reading this book you will be constantly asking the questions, right to the end. The here-and-now style of writing is easier to get in to than it seems.

Note: Though this book was a free gift from the author, the content of my review was in no way influenced by the gifting. The book speaks for itself and my review would have been worded just this way even if I'd gone out and bought it. I also give bonus points for Text To Speech enabling on Kindle format.... but that also wasn't a factor in the above review ( )

I couldn't stop reading this book.Very good,easy to read ..
Probably will be good idea for future movie.. ( )

Hope Road is a very well-written book, already summarized well by several reviewers, so I won’t go into the plot details. John Ray is certainly an interesting main character, and the reader is kept curious about the other primary characters, as well – the Ukrainians, John Ray’s surprisingly adept receptionist Connie, his girlfriend Den, Lanny, the murdered prostitute Donna, and so on.

Perhaps because I wasn’t able to really devote a lot of time to reading this book in two or three sittings, I found myself needing to look back a few times to reference one character or another. However, it may also have been because though the author wove a tight plot, I didn’t think that he worked hard enough on developing the characters, several of whom seemed somewhat one-dimensional. I would have liked to have heard a bit more about Freddy, John Ray’s friend who was accused of murdering the prostitute (as well as being in possession of the car with a large stash of counterfeit bills that became central to the plot.) I never had the sense that I knew him at all. What were Den’s motivations for being with John Ray, or his motivations for being with her? What about the people running the motel – we know what they did but I didn’t get a sense of knowing them well. Again, some more effort on developing the characters would have added to the story a bit.

I liked how it all came together, with plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing until close to the end, with a complex and tightly woven plot. It is definitely written with British terminology and as an American, I found that I needed to “translate” a few words in my head as I was reading – no big deal and it didn’t detract from the story. I enjoyed reading this book and would read another book by this author. ( )