Injury Time

by Kevin Smith

 Businessman Fenton Conville has it all sewn up, coasting through life with his mates and his money in a sleepy Northern Irish village. Until, that is, he wakes on his fiftieth birthday to an unexpected solicitor's letter and a shocking allegation that could blow his world apart. In this sharp-eyed comedy of memories, middle age and long-buried mistakes, a privileged entrepreneur feels the chill winds of post-Brexit change in a society struggling to account for its past. 

Ultimately,   Injury Time   is a poignant, acerbic look at a man out of sync with the world around him. Kevin Smith's prose is by turns hilarious and incisive, blending satire with a genuine exploration of aging, masculinity, and the slow erosion of certainty. This is a story about dodging bullets, literal and metaphorical, and the painful comedy of life's second half. In the end, Fenton's true struggle is less about money or status than finding relevance and peace as the clock runs down.

272 pages, Paperback

Expected publication January 6, 2026

Reviews

[jinkiswinkis · Rating 2 out of 5]

planet of the vapes is a crazy shop name

[Larry McKee · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a while since I read a book that made me laugh out loud so many times. It begins by focusing on the growing (and amusing) troubles of Fenton Conville, a well-off businessman, over the months on either side of his fiftieth birthday. It’s the late 2010s in the Northern Ireland city of Belfast, or more precisely in one of its smugly comfortable and mostly Protestant suburbs. Gradually, Fenton’s finances, his marriage, his reputation, and his health start to collapse – kind of a modern take on Job (but no spoilers). You get the feeling the author, Kevin Smith, had a great time thinking up the next misstep and misfortune of his protagonist, to the benefit of his readers.
But the great thing about the book is that it becomes something more than just a funny tale of a very minor Master of the Universe (in the Tom Wolfe sense) getting his comeuppance, deserved or not. The narrative shifts focus toward the stories of Fenton’s interwoven community of friends, family, employees, old lovers, drinking buddies and business acquaintances. There is a serious theme underlying all of this, of how Belfast’s (and its encompassing nations) long traumatic history (especially the Troubles) still directly and indirectly affect the lives of its citizens. Plus, the uncertainties of Brexit. At a late moment in the book, a Visitor (or vision?) asks Fenton to declare his nationality, a challenge he has a hard time meeting. But the author doesn’t bear down hard on this shift in theme, and there is little moralizing or laying blame on anyone or any group. And the laughs keep coming.
Towards the end, Smith even works in an homage to a well-known passage from James Joyce’s Dubliners. I think he included it to quietly make the case that Belfast is of high literary value in its own way. I’m looking forward to his future efforts to build on this claim.
This is the kind of book I will aggresively recommend to my bookworm friends, and everything else written by Kevin Smith is now on my list.
Trigger warnings: lots of heavy drinking, horrible hangovers, remorse over teenage indiscretions, grumpy aging parents, skin rashes, and discussions of flavored vape juices.

[Linda Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light but with some surprisingly poignant touches. Very witty and insightful on life in Belfast, especially as a middle aged guy who's financial situation could be better. He's accused of some past impropriety but in truth he's struggling to remember who it might be, and ultimately there is some double crossing.
The narrative is enough to keep the pages turning, whilst not life or death in its grip. But the joy of the book is in the character drawings, so deeply recognisable as part of Belfast's social tapestry, and the witty turn of phrase. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it.
( ARC received )