The Rave by Nicky Black

• Paperback: 373 pages
• Publisher: Independently published (9 Aug. 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1718096062
• ISBN-13: 978-1718096066

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

It’s 1989, the second Summer of Love, and Tommy Collins is doing what he does best: organising all-night raves on a shoestring, and playing a game of cat and mouse with the police. But Detective Chief Inspector Peach is closing in on him, and his dreams of a better life are beginning to slip through his fingers. DCI Peach finds it all a nuisance, a waste of his force’s time, until he finds his teenage daughter unconscious at one of Tommy’s raves. Then the chase becomes personal, and his need to make Tommy pay becomes an obsession. The Rave is a fast-paced, gritty portrayal of life on the edges of society at the end of a decade that changed Britain forever.

Review

The Rave is Nicky Black’s second book, and like the first is set in the North East of England where both she and I are from. This book was very nostalgic for me, in the summer of 1989 I was 16, the same age as DCI Peaches daughter, and just getting in the house music and clubs. As the title suggests, this book is about the illegal Rave’s just starting in the late 1980’s and the drug culture that was associated with it. The story is narrated by three of the main characters, DCI Peach, Tommy and Denise who is Tommy’s mother-in-law and sister to local criminal and drug dealer Paul Smart.

Tommy Collins is young, disenchanted with his life on the Valley Park Estate, known for drugs, crime and poverty.  Tommy has started to set up illegal raves to make money, hopefully enough to give him and his family a better life. The problem being that his raves are illegal, and even though he tries to stop drug dealers getting in, he can’t stop them all and the police are trying to shut him down. Tommy has drawn the attention of one DCI in particular, DCI Peach whose daughter was at one of these raves and was found unconscious after taking drugs. Tommy also attracts the attention of the local crime boss and drug dealer Paul Smart, who is looking to make money by getting Tommy to set up one of the largest raves in the country, and will go to any lengths to make this happen, including violence and threats to Tommy’s family.

Nicky Black’s characters are gritty, real and she has a great understanding of the human psychology. Tommy, even though he is breaking the law, does attract empathy for his situation and if I’m honest I really wanted him to pull off his plans for the sake of his family. DCI Peach is dogged in his pursuit of Tommy, but through the book he goes through a learning curve, from being quite staid and set in his ways, to be less rigid and understand more about the issues affecting the youth of the period. Nicky really captures the period, with its feeling of hopelessness on the council estates, the crime and the youth wanting to forget their problems and have a better life than their parents.

The Rave is an authentic read with a rawness and grit to the story. The characters, their interaction and stories weave together to give a well rounded narrative and make this such a brilliant read. Fast paced and dark, with a bit of Geordie humour, The Rave is a fabulous read.

 

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