Jockey is the crim who has just come out from a stint in a juvenile detention centre; he is hero worshipped by Alex, a disenchanted kid from a twice broken home who for undisclosed reasons is a low achiever, barely able to read in high school. He is picked on at school but deals with it, indeed encourages it, by being a lippy smart aleck. Alex’s incongruous friend is Marta, strictly parented, Christian, bright; but rescued from being a goody-goody by her behaviour as the story unfolds and she becomes the most appealing of the characters.

Before Jockey was sentenced for bashing a police officer he was involved in a peer mentoring program to help Alex learn to read, although instead, he led him further astray. When he is released Alex seems scared, and we soon find out that he was in part responsible for Jockey’s arrest but does not know if Jockey is aware of this. Jockey takes Alex under his wing again and promises to toughen him up by taking him out into the wild territory, on the other side of the law, for a rough night out. ( )

This book opens with the central character Alex deliberately giving “cheek” to the senior boys at school and then getting his head “dunked” in the boys toilet for it! Alex then discovers that the whole process has been watched by “The Jockey” an older boy who has just spent a year in juvenile prison because Alex told his father about a robbery that the jockey was about to commit and a policeman was badly injured when they tried to arrest him. The Jockey doesn’t know it was Alex that dobbed and suggests that he and Alex head to the city to “rough” it with only the Jockey to protect them. Or does he know and Alex is walking into a terrible trap?
Scene where Alex goes to get his jacket back from an old drunk who stole it from him at the cemetery and the drunk supposedly falls to his death off a water tower