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In Other Hands
A rucksack is stolen. It is a simple and unremarkable theft but it will have far-reaching consequences for five disparate, yet equally marginalised, individuals.
The Victim - Karen is grieving over the loss of her little girl, Amy. The theft of a toy rabbit, the only keepsake Karen has of her little girl, leads her to take some drastic actions to retrieve it.
The Thief - Clarke is a failed businessman deeply in debt to the merciless loan shark Michaels and, having run out of friends to take pity on him, is facing life on the streets if he can’t change something in his own life to turn his fortunes around.
The Loan Shark’s Hired Muscle - Danny has recently served a year-long sentence for child pornography offences, and is struggling to cope with life outside. A social pariah, he seeks solace in the insular world of an on-line virtual reality game, i-Land.
The Therapist - Jane has been helping Karen through the grieving process for the last two years and is perhaps the only person who knows that the relationship Karen had with Amy was not a normal one. Jane, like Danny, spends much of her life in the virtual i-Land, an escape from the bone disease that is inexorably killing her.
The Scientist – Nadia has, with Karen’s help, been tracking the progress of a mysterious plague amongst the city’s urban fox population but finds she has more than work on her mind when MI5 agents appear on her doorstep investigating her family’s links to international terrorism.
In Other Hands is a story about people on the margins of society and the ties that bind us all together.
The Victim - Karen is grieving over the loss of her little girl, Amy. The theft of a toy rabbit, the only keepsake Karen has of her little girl, leads her to take some drastic actions to retrieve it.
The Thief - Clarke is a failed businessman deeply in debt to the merciless loan shark Michaels and, having run out of friends to take pity on him, is facing life on the streets if he can’t change something in his own life to turn his fortunes around.
The Loan Shark’s Hired Muscle - Danny has recently served a year-long sentence for child pornography offences, and is struggling to cope with life outside. A social pariah, he seeks solace in the insular world of an on-line virtual reality game, i-Land.
The Therapist - Jane has been helping Karen through the grieving process for the last two years and is perhaps the only person who knows that the relationship Karen had with Amy was not a normal one. Jane, like Danny, spends much of her life in the virtual i-Land, an escape from the bone disease that is inexorably killing her.
The Scientist – Nadia has, with Karen’s help, been tracking the progress of a mysterious plague amongst the city’s urban fox population but finds she has more than work on her mind when MI5 agents appear on her doorstep investigating her family’s links to international terrorism.
In Other Hands is a story about people on the margins of society and the ties that bind us all together.
360 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 22, 2012
About the author
Iain Grant
53 books83 followersIain Grant is, with Heide Goody, co-author of more books than he can count.
Lots of people seem to like the Clovenhoof books, in which Satan loses his job and has to move to suburbia.
The Oddjobs series of books is also very popular, in which alien horrors set to invade our world must first get past the British civil servants assigned to keeping them under wraps.
Heide and Iain are also responsible for various other bits of funny and fantastical nonsense.
Lots of people seem to like the Clovenhoof books, in which Satan loses his job and has to move to suburbia.
The Oddjobs series of books is also very popular, in which alien horrors set to invade our world must first get past the British civil servants assigned to keeping them under wraps.
Heide and Iain are also responsible for various other bits of funny and fantastical nonsense.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 27, 2013
This is a fantastic story about five characters who cross each other's paths in Birmingham.
The five-perspective approach with such a rich ensemble keeps the story fresh and makes for a page-turning reading experience. A lesser writer might struggle with such breadth (and depth) of characters but Grant slips between them effortlessly.
Readers will be divided over which character is their favourite. Many will rightly favour Danny, the reformed paedophile who regularly escapes into the fantasy of online gaming. Danny is a particularly difficult character to make sympathetic but Grant seems to relish the challenge. The scene where Danny is holding a little boy's hand is a tense, uncomfortable and brilliant piece of writing.
As ever, Grant's talent for witty dialogue exchanges is correct and present. One feels it is only a matter of time before he tries his hand at a screenplay (perhaps his collaborative comic novel Clovenhoof will get its much-deserved BBC3 adaptation after all).
The sixth character in this modern day masterpiece is the setting. Joyce had Dublin, Dickens had London and now Grant has Birmingham. The second city is realised in all of its timeless, charming Midlands glory with shout-outs ringing out to locations in and out of the city. It will provide an extra frisson of joy to any Brummie or Birmingham graduate turning the page and is worth buying for this reason alone.
One criticism: Grant should have called this novel Five Ways, after Birmingham's infamous roundabout. But the film adaptation can fix that one.
The five-perspective approach with such a rich ensemble keeps the story fresh and makes for a page-turning reading experience. A lesser writer might struggle with such breadth (and depth) of characters but Grant slips between them effortlessly.
Readers will be divided over which character is their favourite. Many will rightly favour Danny, the reformed paedophile who regularly escapes into the fantasy of online gaming. Danny is a particularly difficult character to make sympathetic but Grant seems to relish the challenge. The scene where Danny is holding a little boy's hand is a tense, uncomfortable and brilliant piece of writing.
As ever, Grant's talent for witty dialogue exchanges is correct and present. One feels it is only a matter of time before he tries his hand at a screenplay (perhaps his collaborative comic novel Clovenhoof will get its much-deserved BBC3 adaptation after all).
The sixth character in this modern day masterpiece is the setting. Joyce had Dublin, Dickens had London and now Grant has Birmingham. The second city is realised in all of its timeless, charming Midlands glory with shout-outs ringing out to locations in and out of the city. It will provide an extra frisson of joy to any Brummie or Birmingham graduate turning the page and is worth buying for this reason alone.
One criticism: Grant should have called this novel Five Ways, after Birmingham's infamous roundabout. But the film adaptation can fix that one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review