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In Cold Blood - Part 1 of 3: A Brother’s Sworn Vengeance
Our Vinnie can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts.
This is PART 1 of 3.
You can read Part 1 three weeks ahead of release of the full-length eBook and paperback.
The infamous Canterbury Estate in Bradford, a hotbed of crime, drink and drugs, was a law unto itself in the ’70s. So when one of their own was wronged in any way, the community always had its own way of dealing with it.
The first title in a series of gritty family sagas, Our Vinnie accounts the dramatic true story of a brother’s determination to avenge his younger sister’s rape. Josie was just 11 when her Vinnie, then 14, was taken away to a detention centre. Distraught by his absence and left alone with indifferent parents, when she escapes from one of their rows she naively enters the house of a neighbour, Melvin, who – horrifically – leads her upstairs and overpowers her.
Convinced by her friend Carol, Josie tells her sister Lyndsey about the rape but, with Vinnie out of the picture, Lyndsey uses the information for her own ends. When Vinnie returns, hardened by years inside the system, his outrage on discovering the truth is severe. And with new abuses continually coming to light, a cataclysmic series of violent events begins to spiral out of control…
Dramatic and shocking, Our Vinnie is an unbelievable page-turner, documenting a community forsaken by society, and one brother’s unrelenting determination to take justice into his own hands.
113 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 16, 2014
105 people are currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
Julie Shaw
61 books23 followersPen name for author Lynne Barrett-Lee:
Born in London and now based in Wales, Ghostwriter Lynne Barrett-Lee has been a full time author since the mid nineties. Having enjoyed several years of success as a short story writer, with her fiction appearing in almost all of the UK’s leading women’s magazines, she had her first novel, the acclaimed Julia Gets a Life, published by Bantam in 2000. She has since written seven further novels, including her 2006 work, Barefoot in the Dark, which was shortlisted for the inaugural Melissa Nathan Award. Lynne was also approached to write one of the first titles in the Quick Reads series for emergent readers, and went on to ghost a further title for TV presenter Fiona Phillips.
Lynne began ghostwriting full length non-fiction in 2007, when approached to co-author paraplegic Melanie Davies' incredible story, Never Say Die, and since that successful collaboration has been ghostwriting full time. Her 2010 title, for Faith Scott, I Won’t Forgive What You Did, enjoyed seven weeks in the UK Sunday Times Bestseller list, as did the 2012 memoir The Baby Laundry. She also ghosted the acclaimed memoir Giant George: life with the World’s Tallest Dog a bestselling title in both the UK and US.
More recently, Lynne ghosted two bestselling titles which were published in the spring of this year. The first, Mum’s Way, is the story of mum of eight, Angie Millthorpe, who died of breast cancer, aged 48, in 2010. The second, The Girl With No Name, was published in May 13, and relates the story of a young girl abandoned in the jungles of Colombia, and has already been sold in eighteen countries, with film rights being negotiated and a National Geographic documentary being shown in December 13.
Lynne also co-writes a major non-fiction series for one of the world's leading publishers, under a pseudonym. The first seven titles have also all been Sunday Times bestsellers, with three more being published in 2013/14. The series was launched in the USA in 2013, and the first ebook in the series was a NY Times bestseller.
Lynne also writes about writing, as she teaches the craft weekly, at Cardiff University - her ebook NOVEL being the written distillation of her popular novel writing course.
Born in London and now based in Wales, Ghostwriter Lynne Barrett-Lee has been a full time author since the mid nineties. Having enjoyed several years of success as a short story writer, with her fiction appearing in almost all of the UK’s leading women’s magazines, she had her first novel, the acclaimed Julia Gets a Life, published by Bantam in 2000. She has since written seven further novels, including her 2006 work, Barefoot in the Dark, which was shortlisted for the inaugural Melissa Nathan Award. Lynne was also approached to write one of the first titles in the Quick Reads series for emergent readers, and went on to ghost a further title for TV presenter Fiona Phillips.
Lynne began ghostwriting full length non-fiction in 2007, when approached to co-author paraplegic Melanie Davies' incredible story, Never Say Die, and since that successful collaboration has been ghostwriting full time. Her 2010 title, for Faith Scott, I Won’t Forgive What You Did, enjoyed seven weeks in the UK Sunday Times Bestseller list, as did the 2012 memoir The Baby Laundry. She also ghosted the acclaimed memoir Giant George: life with the World’s Tallest Dog a bestselling title in both the UK and US.
More recently, Lynne ghosted two bestselling titles which were published in the spring of this year. The first, Mum’s Way, is the story of mum of eight, Angie Millthorpe, who died of breast cancer, aged 48, in 2010. The second, The Girl With No Name, was published in May 13, and relates the story of a young girl abandoned in the jungles of Colombia, and has already been sold in eighteen countries, with film rights being negotiated and a National Geographic documentary being shown in December 13.
Lynne also co-writes a major non-fiction series for one of the world's leading publishers, under a pseudonym. The first seven titles have also all been Sunday Times bestsellers, with three more being published in 2013/14. The series was launched in the USA in 2013, and the first ebook in the series was a NY Times bestseller.
Lynne also writes about writing, as she teaches the craft weekly, at Cardiff University - her ebook NOVEL being the written distillation of her popular novel writing course.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 6, 2020
Not as good as Capotes
Not as good as Capotes, but still readable and back chilling. keeps you looking over your shoulder and locking your doors.
Not as good as Capotes, but still readable and back chilling. keeps you looking over your shoulder and locking your doors.
March 10, 2017
Really enjoyed this book
Couldn't put it down
Couldn't put it down
December 22, 2016
True Crime in British Underworld
"Our Vinnie" is an interesting, if depressing story of the development of a British criminal from the lower socio-economic classes in Britain. Connie is loved by his mother and younger sister. He regularly skips school, doesn't want to work, doesn't have a trade or want to bother learning a trade. He does know how to steal, but he is not good at it as a child. He gets caught rather easily. His family seems to depend on the infamous British "dole". The adults seem to drink and fight. So it isn't any real stretch that "Our Vinnie" learns a trade after all, and becomes a career criminal.
The book starts slow, but picks up as Vinnie gets older. Another book follows this one. I found the story to be very interesting, and discovered crimes I never before heard of. Recommended
"Our Vinnie" is an interesting, if depressing story of the development of a British criminal from the lower socio-economic classes in Britain. Connie is loved by his mother and younger sister. He regularly skips school, doesn't want to work, doesn't have a trade or want to bother learning a trade. He does know how to steal, but he is not good at it as a child. He gets caught rather easily. His family seems to depend on the infamous British "dole". The adults seem to drink and fight. So it isn't any real stretch that "Our Vinnie" learns a trade after all, and becomes a career criminal.
The book starts slow, but picks up as Vinnie gets older. Another book follows this one. I found the story to be very interesting, and discovered crimes I never before heard of. Recommended
December 1, 2015
Julie's books about her own Yorkshire family remind me of my dad's Glasgow family. Perpetually short on cash and often very, very angry, Julie's colorful and relatives--always ready for a drink or a cuppa or a bit of fun--conquer life with a combination of charm, talent, and pure dumb luck. Julie doesn't excuse the violence or lawlessness of her uncles and aunts and miscellaneous cousins but instead imbues them with decency and humanity.
January 31, 2017
This has you gripped as soon as you read that first page and you won't be able to put it down...my advice buy the whole book and not the mistake I did buy purchasing individually my error.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews