ENEMIES CLOSER.

 Today its my pleasure to be sharing my thoughts on ...

ENEMIES CLOSER by TOM BATT.

If You Can't Beat Them

... Join Them

Jaded police detective Mike Palmer has been trying to take down suspected bank robber Donovan Carter for eighteen months. However, this pales in comparison when Mike's ex-wife threatens to take their daughter away to another country and he needs a lawyer to fight her for custody. Mike turns to Donovan for money and is enlisted by him to help pull off his next heist.

Donovan has his own problems too; under the thumb of a dangerous gangster forcing him to perform the heists to pay off a debt and desperate to keep his crimes hidden from his wife. As the former adversaries work together on Donovan's biggest heist to date, they also have Mike's partner Jade Edmonds closing in, hoping to take them down.

One of the more surprising reads of 2023.

I'm not usually into shorter stories {and at 166 this is a little longer than your average novella which is largely accepted as being 70 to 160 pages long} as, for one thing, the plot rarely proves satisfying and, for another, the characters, well, lets just say that I more often than not find that the story is too short for the characters to develop properly. There is however always the exceptions and Enemies Closer proved to be one of those exceptions.

The chapters short, the story well plotted, the pace fast, the characters, diverse and intriguing; the two leads, jaded cop DI Mike Palmer and, DS Jade Edmonds, his number two {the moral compass of the story which is kind of odd given how unlikeable I actually found her} who is intent on climbing her way up the ranks ... but at what cost? Will she make the same mistakes as Palmer? Will she become the one thing she has promised her wife she won't become? 

'Just don't turn into one of those obsessive detectives that bury their head in the investigation and neglect the other things on life. I've seen those detective shows. That's how it always ends.'

'That sounds like my partners,' Jade replied, well aware of how Mike's obsession affected his personal life.

'Exactly. I just hope you stay strong and maintain focus on what's important in life. I'm not losing you to a bunch of criminals.' 

- pg 36

Yes, this is a police procedural but it is also so much more. Its also a story of families; of the price people are willing to pay in what they think are in the best interests of their nearest and dearest; of what people see as being important in life; of how the personal  lives of cops, Palmer and Jade along with that of criminal Donovan Carter are all in their own ways crumbling around them.

Written with flair and an engaging cinematic quality, its not all screenwriters {award winning or otherwise} whose plots and characters work well when it comes to the written word and yet Batt writes here with great aplomb.

Tom Batt published his first book, Old Wounds: A Nick Shelby Case and Other Crime Stories in 2021 to positive reviews following it up with a second collection of short stories, MindSpaces in 2022. His first novella Street Siren was published the same year. He is also an award-winning screenwriter.

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With thanks to Tom for supplying me with a paper copy.

Agree or disagree with me, all opinions are my own. No financial compensation was asked for nor given. Threats of violence towards my favourite teddy bear went unheeded as did promises of chocolate.

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