I am delighted to share my review today for The Family Business by Alex Kane. This is a fabulous and gritty crime thriller.

My huge thanks to Zoe at Zooloos Book Tours for my spot on the Blog Tour and for arranging my copy of the book from Hera Books.

Blood’s thicker than water… and they’re not afraid to spill it
Donnie Black. Charming, successful… and utterly terrifying, he rules the Glasgow underworld with an iron fist. Nothing – or no one – will stop him and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty to grow his fortune.
Layla Black. She’s been married to Donnie for twenty years, enjoying the lavish world he has worked hard to create. But behind the perfect image, Layla is crumbling, numbing her pain with alcohol. But Layla doesn’t know the secrets Donnie keeps – and the truth will send her spiralling.

Louise Bellshaw. She’s young, beautiful and innocent. She’s charmed by Donnie’s sweet words and believes she’s found, true love. But Louise doesn’t know her dream man has plans that will turn her life into a nightmare.

As the three collide, no one can predict how family ties will turn to bloodshed. Because you’ll do anything for the ones you love, won’t you?

A dark, twisty and totally gripping thriller set in the heart of Glasgow gangland – fans of Mandasue Heller and Kimberley Chambers won’t be able to put this down

Purchase Links – Amazon UK – US

MY REVIEW

Oh! My! Goodness! What a brilliant one sitting read The Family Business is!

Set in Glasgow and the start of a power struggle between an existing and well-known gang and the new up and coming one. The Blacks rule the roost of the criminal underworld in this city. Brothers Donnie and Steff run the show. Donnie decides to take a different direction and this doesn’t sit well with several of his team and so they splinter.

The thing with The Blacks is that once you are in, you are in for life… however long that may be! So expect repercussions.

There are many characters involved in his story and they are introduced in a manageable way, so it made it easy for me to know who was who pretty quickly. This turned out to be ideal as it isn’t until later that I realised how interconnected various characters are.

Layla is a key character, she is the wife of Donnie. After the death of her sister, her life has spiralled out of control. Louise flies close to the wind as she is flattered by her new boyfriend, then we have characters like Kev, Chud, Tam, Dunny, Susie, Darcie and a few more. All these have a great role to play and not realising how important their role is until later in the story kept me reading.

This is a dark and twisted crime thriller, there is something about the gangs and underworld stories that appeal to me. They are all bad, but for me, in fiction, there are good baddies and bad baddies, and in some cases really evil baddies. This book has them all and the author will keep you guessing as to which category if any they fall into.

As I mentioned earlier, this book was a one-sitting read. It is a gripping story that soon captured my attention and once started I couldn’t leave it for a moment. There is a real dangerous edge to this story and it made for an exciting read. There are some brutal scenes and the author creates such a suspenseful and edge of your seat read.

If you like really edgy, dark, dangerous and twisted crime, thriller stories with hard-hitting storylines then this is one you really need to put on your TBR. It is one I would definitely recommend.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Kane is a psychological thriller writer who lives in Glasgow. She is a huge fan of the genre, with her favourite authors in the genre being Lisa Hall, BA Paris and Sarah Stovell. If she is not writing, she can be found playing with her cat, reading, or drinking tea and/or gin (sometimes all of the above).

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