As a debut thriller, I thought this was a good read, it had good pace and the characters were fleshed out enough to make them realistic. I enjoyed the atmosphere and tension the author brought to the story and the clever way the main character was portrayed as articulate and intelligent without being too heroic. It seemed to me to be a sort of gritty urban classic; a sort of cross between Get Carter (Original - Not Sly) and Goodfellas. In fact the main character reminded me very much of the character of Michael Cain and charisma of Ray Liotta before, the rot set in.Good read, well recommended. ( )