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[Jack Hanger] [Author: Fouche, James] [September, 2010]
Dave Matters worked as a drug dealer for the notorious Wallace Brothers. After being imprisoned, he reluctantly agreed to aid the police in locating a rising criminal mastermind named Joe Taxi. But a botched drug deal left him scarred for life, suffering from a randomly selective memory-loss and obsessive compulsive disorder. Now, two years later, Dave leads a mundane life, socially impaired and held captive by his mental instabilities. When his brother is murdered, he is forced to revisit the gritty Cape Town he had betrayed in order to find whoever is responsible. As the anticipation of a mass city riot mounts, Dave inches closer to a climactic finale that would tear open the drug world to which he once belonged.
216 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2010
1 person is currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
James Fouche
4 books18 followersCrime author, screenwriter, silly daddy, serial-entrepreneur, autodidact, deep thinker, coffee snob, wine buff, passionate traveller. Those words somehow make up the total sum of me. If these words resonate with you, too, then you might like what I have to say.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 25, 2012
Jack Hanger tells the story of six days in the life of Dave Matters set against the backdrop of the 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament in South Africa.
Dave is ex-muscle for a gangster, an ex-con, and former undercover operative for the police, all by the age of 27. During a high speed chase through Cape Town's busiest streets after a drug dealer who might lead him the elusive drug lord known as Joe Taxi, Dave crashes and suffers a serious head injury. He was never "right" after the accident and is now content to clerk in a video rental store.
When his little brother Joshua gets in over his head with the mob and murdered, Dave is compelled to take them down. It isn't just revenge, Dave says but "It's about dirt that needs to surface." His police detective friend Marsh won't sanction him going undercover again but is resigned that Dave won't let it drop and hopes that he doesn't do anything too stupid and will call him if he does.
Jack Hanger is a basic "one man seeking revenge against a criminal organization" story that we've read before but don't think that puts it into the tired cliche school of crime fiction. It is a solid story, compact, with a short time frame that pushes the story along, and a main character different from any I've encountered before. The Cape Town setting adds an interesting atmosphere to the action.
The main strength of the story, for me, is the character of Dave Matters. He has a form of obsessive compulsive disorder that compels him to keep both hands busy, often on different tasks, and his mind thinking of two or three things at the same time. The accident also left him not always able to link emotions, actions, thoughts, and senses. "He can't connect all the dots properly, so...he just doesn't connect them at all." He can be a teddy bear or a wrecking machine without comprehending what he is feeling or why. Fouché integrates Dave's neurological condition into the action and it adds layers of complexity to an otherwise straight forward story of a man seeking his brother's killers. He is a man who wants to find meaning in life but finds life confusing. I found Dave someone I'd like to know, likable and scary at the same time and this makes the relationship between Dave and the police detective Marsh more believable. If I can believe in Dave then so can Marsh.
This is the author's first book. He does have some odd word choices and phrasing that initially made me pause but I found a rhythm to the flow of words and decided that I was experiencing the world as Dave might.
Fouché is currently working on a white collar crime story.
A Jack Hanger is also known as a butcher bird and is noted for hanging its food on barbed wire or twigs and thorns.
Dave is ex-muscle for a gangster, an ex-con, and former undercover operative for the police, all by the age of 27. During a high speed chase through Cape Town's busiest streets after a drug dealer who might lead him the elusive drug lord known as Joe Taxi, Dave crashes and suffers a serious head injury. He was never "right" after the accident and is now content to clerk in a video rental store.
When his little brother Joshua gets in over his head with the mob and murdered, Dave is compelled to take them down. It isn't just revenge, Dave says but "It's about dirt that needs to surface." His police detective friend Marsh won't sanction him going undercover again but is resigned that Dave won't let it drop and hopes that he doesn't do anything too stupid and will call him if he does.
Jack Hanger is a basic "one man seeking revenge against a criminal organization" story that we've read before but don't think that puts it into the tired cliche school of crime fiction. It is a solid story, compact, with a short time frame that pushes the story along, and a main character different from any I've encountered before. The Cape Town setting adds an interesting atmosphere to the action.
The main strength of the story, for me, is the character of Dave Matters. He has a form of obsessive compulsive disorder that compels him to keep both hands busy, often on different tasks, and his mind thinking of two or three things at the same time. The accident also left him not always able to link emotions, actions, thoughts, and senses. "He can't connect all the dots properly, so...he just doesn't connect them at all." He can be a teddy bear or a wrecking machine without comprehending what he is feeling or why. Fouché integrates Dave's neurological condition into the action and it adds layers of complexity to an otherwise straight forward story of a man seeking his brother's killers. He is a man who wants to find meaning in life but finds life confusing. I found Dave someone I'd like to know, likable and scary at the same time and this makes the relationship between Dave and the police detective Marsh more believable. If I can believe in Dave then so can Marsh.
This is the author's first book. He does have some odd word choices and phrasing that initially made me pause but I found a rhythm to the flow of words and decided that I was experiencing the world as Dave might.
Fouché is currently working on a white collar crime story.
A Jack Hanger is also known as a butcher bird and is noted for hanging its food on barbed wire or twigs and thorns.
August 23, 2012
See review on blog.jessnickel.com
Jack Hangar (http://www.jackhanger.com/) by James Fouche is a crime thriller based in the beautiful but often violent South Africa, focusing on Johannesburg and Cape Town. Fouche’s writing is simply brilliant – he mixes elements of the criminal mind and the human mind, deftly navigating the thin line between morality and vengeance.
Dave Matters is one of the most complex characters I have come across in modern literature: similar to the narrator in Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk), Matters struggles with perception and mental instability as he attempts to move on from traumatic events of his past. With new conflicts come new vendettas, and it is up to the reader to decide if Matters is moral or simply insane.
Fouche’s portrayal of a violent yet seductively beautiful South Africa educate the reader and remove some of the romanticizing about the country that Americans experience due to the celebrity connections such as Charlize Theron. Like any true author, Fouche creates for readers a challenging, complex portrait of the environment in which his characters must ultimately survive. This is not an easy task. Fluid prose, proper pacing, selective word choice, and driven dialogue combine to create this complex web in which Dave Matters wanders. Normally, I am not a fan of the direct crime novel, but Fouche delivers in such a way that this story contains so much more: crime, philosophy, and reflections on various aspects of the human condition.
I highly recommend this book, particularly to those who appreciate a book that looks at and challenges morality in the face of a violent environment. Philosophically, the book addresses issues that are (or should be) on the forefront of our minds as humans in an increasingly connected world where communication and understanding of the world’s varied cultures and environs prove to be a constant challenge.
Jack Hangar (http://www.jackhanger.com/) by James Fouche is a crime thriller based in the beautiful but often violent South Africa, focusing on Johannesburg and Cape Town. Fouche’s writing is simply brilliant – he mixes elements of the criminal mind and the human mind, deftly navigating the thin line between morality and vengeance.
Dave Matters is one of the most complex characters I have come across in modern literature: similar to the narrator in Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk), Matters struggles with perception and mental instability as he attempts to move on from traumatic events of his past. With new conflicts come new vendettas, and it is up to the reader to decide if Matters is moral or simply insane.
Fouche’s portrayal of a violent yet seductively beautiful South Africa educate the reader and remove some of the romanticizing about the country that Americans experience due to the celebrity connections such as Charlize Theron. Like any true author, Fouche creates for readers a challenging, complex portrait of the environment in which his characters must ultimately survive. This is not an easy task. Fluid prose, proper pacing, selective word choice, and driven dialogue combine to create this complex web in which Dave Matters wanders. Normally, I am not a fan of the direct crime novel, but Fouche delivers in such a way that this story contains so much more: crime, philosophy, and reflections on various aspects of the human condition.
I highly recommend this book, particularly to those who appreciate a book that looks at and challenges morality in the face of a violent environment. Philosophically, the book addresses issues that are (or should be) on the forefront of our minds as humans in an increasingly connected world where communication and understanding of the world’s varied cultures and environs prove to be a constant challenge.
September 17, 2012
Set in the seedy underbelly of Cape Town, Jack Hanger is a gritty and compelling novel. The action takes place over just a few days in the run up to the 2010 soccer world cup, and while it gets off to something of a slow start, Fouche manages to jam a whole lot of action into those few days.
The main character is Dave Matters, who once had his own role to play in the world of crime, and now suffers from a rather unusual form of obsessive compulsive disorder and amnesia following a traumatic car accident. This psychological disorder is pivotal to progression of the plot, as the reader is drawn ever-deeper into the scarred mind of Matters. The book is a prototypical crime novel, with just the right mix of suspense, violence, and vengeance, with great depth of character thrown in for good measure. The author also uses the novel as a vehicle for engaging with broader social issues such as crime, economic conditions, and the impact of fatherlessness on children – all issues of particular pertinence to a South African audience. This is done in a way which further enhances the reader’s understanding and enjoyment of the novel, rather than being overtly ‘preachy’. All in all, it is a gripping read - certainly a book I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good thriller.
The main character is Dave Matters, who once had his own role to play in the world of crime, and now suffers from a rather unusual form of obsessive compulsive disorder and amnesia following a traumatic car accident. This psychological disorder is pivotal to progression of the plot, as the reader is drawn ever-deeper into the scarred mind of Matters. The book is a prototypical crime novel, with just the right mix of suspense, violence, and vengeance, with great depth of character thrown in for good measure. The author also uses the novel as a vehicle for engaging with broader social issues such as crime, economic conditions, and the impact of fatherlessness on children – all issues of particular pertinence to a South African audience. This is done in a way which further enhances the reader’s understanding and enjoyment of the novel, rather than being overtly ‘preachy’. All in all, it is a gripping read - certainly a book I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good thriller.
August 28, 2014
Jack Hanger is a crime thriller set in a tumultuous South Africa, where fears of mass
city riots are expressed by all forms of media on a daily basis.
Furthermore, the whole story of Dave Matters depicts the reality of fatherless homes and the effect it has on
the fabric of society. The senseless degradation of our moral values and our lack of consideration for civilization gets explored in this tense crime thriller, that pushes the boundaries into the mysterious drug world of South Africa.
city riots are expressed by all forms of media on a daily basis.
Furthermore, the whole story of Dave Matters depicts the reality of fatherless homes and the effect it has on
the fabric of society. The senseless degradation of our moral values and our lack of consideration for civilization gets explored in this tense crime thriller, that pushes the boundaries into the mysterious drug world of South Africa.
August 29, 2011
For the most part the reader spends time in the damaged mind of Dave Matters, who lives in a surreal world of memory loss and hallucinations. Set against the drug trade at the time of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, it is a slow-moving, yet compelling novel with bursts of violent action. Fouché has succeeded in creating a superb psychological portrait which is, however, not your run of the mill thriller.
May 20, 2012
Jack Hanger is a tight, well written thriller. The author has a way with words that grabs your attention and takes you on a roller-coaster ride through the dark side of Cape Town's drug world. A must read!
February 8, 2013
A mind twister. It delves deep into the character's thoughts. Touching on quite a few very dark and disturbing aspects of the human condition. Recommended to anyone interested in the human mind, crime, and Cape Town.
February 6, 2012
A very original and gripping true South African crime thriller. Definitely worth reading!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews