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Contraflow
Friday 20th June 1986. In and around London and other British cities the summer of 1986 was the height of the era of the Yuppies. Seven years of Conservative government had created a de-regulated environment where those who were in the right place at the right time, and exploited the opportunities they saw, could become very wealthy. And also those who were willing to bend the rules and step on people in their climb to the top.
One of the latter was James (or Jake as he preferred) Cantrell. He lived with his wife Paula on an up-market 'executive housing’ development in South-East London, from where he commuted to his base in the city. He was the hatchet man for an acquisitive diversified holding company, Andrews Holdings PLC, and had acquired for himself quite a reputation, though whether that reputation was good or bad depends upon your point of view!
A few hundred yards from the Cantrell home in an equally up-market but older and larger home lived the Hardy family, who epitomised a mixture between traditional wealth, though not to an excessive degree, and the type of earned wealth which the policies of Margaret Thatcher's government aimed to foster. Tom Hardy had come from a reasonably well-off middle class family. After university he had found himself in the diplomatic service, and had reached quite a senior level, although now at the age of fifty-two his thoughts were turning towards retirement. His wife, Ellen, was eight years younger than he, and was the driving force behind the family. She had started her own business in 1970, in her late twenties, and it had grown steadily to the point where it had been successfully floated on the Stock Market in 1984.
The two families had little or nothing in common apart from the fact that they both had fourteen-year-old daughters, at the same school. Yet they would find themselves drawn together through a single criminal act, which had implications and repercussions far beyond the original intentions of the perpetrators........
This crime novel vividly recreates the atmosphere of mid-80's Britain - a time of major change, both social and technological, (and many believe that this was also the time when the first seeds were sown for the financial problems of the early 21st century). The characterisation and the twists and turns of the plot will keep the reader enthralled until the final page.
One of the latter was James (or Jake as he preferred) Cantrell. He lived with his wife Paula on an up-market 'executive housing’ development in South-East London, from where he commuted to his base in the city. He was the hatchet man for an acquisitive diversified holding company, Andrews Holdings PLC, and had acquired for himself quite a reputation, though whether that reputation was good or bad depends upon your point of view!
A few hundred yards from the Cantrell home in an equally up-market but older and larger home lived the Hardy family, who epitomised a mixture between traditional wealth, though not to an excessive degree, and the type of earned wealth which the policies of Margaret Thatcher's government aimed to foster. Tom Hardy had come from a reasonably well-off middle class family. After university he had found himself in the diplomatic service, and had reached quite a senior level, although now at the age of fifty-two his thoughts were turning towards retirement. His wife, Ellen, was eight years younger than he, and was the driving force behind the family. She had started her own business in 1970, in her late twenties, and it had grown steadily to the point where it had been successfully floated on the Stock Market in 1984.
The two families had little or nothing in common apart from the fact that they both had fourteen-year-old daughters, at the same school. Yet they would find themselves drawn together through a single criminal act, which had implications and repercussions far beyond the original intentions of the perpetrators........
This crime novel vividly recreates the atmosphere of mid-80's Britain - a time of major change, both social and technological, (and many believe that this was also the time when the first seeds were sown for the financial problems of the early 21st century). The characterisation and the twists and turns of the plot will keep the reader enthralled until the final page.
378 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 19, 2012
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