What do you think?
Rate this book
The Grip
James Carroll only meant to do one deal to get into film school. But it went wrong. Now he owes a lot of money to drug dealer Roger Oates. Just a year away from retiring to his dream home in Honolulu, Roger knows this is no time to let things slip. So if James can't pay, his parents must. But Francis Carroll has put everything he has into a project that will finally bring him the success he craves. He simply cannot afford to help his son. And it's no good asking his ambitious new wife, Rachel. She wants a baby—while James's dangerously sexy first wife just wants him back. But something's got to give….Written with a sharp eye for the details of human behavior, this is a stunning debut by a British MP and former diplomat who writes as David McKeowen. A taut thriller, shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for Best Debut Crime Novel of the Year.
512 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Read
December 21, 2007I hated the book, so much so that I didn't even want to get halfway through it. One of the qualities of a passable book must be the fact that a reader will read it from page to page. The Grip is so bad, I stopped reading after two or three chapters. Trust me, you do not want to pick up a copy. Though Hodder published the book - which is a plus - and the front cover is cool (so is the description on the back cover), the contents are five hundred or so pages of crap. Zero stars for this one, David McKeowen.
December 7, 2017
A good read which as the cover says has "a sharp eye for the details of human behaviour...& is full of suspense & surprises"...it certainly kept me on my toes in the later chapters keeping track of who was planning on doing what to whom! I quite liked the way the last chapter was presented & how it finished everything off neatly.
May 20, 2010
RATING: 3.5
When you're a parent, you face all kinds of dilemmas as far as making your children accountable for their own behavior. Whether they are eight or twenty-eight, it's often difficult to know when you should bail them out and when they need to face the music. James Carroll may be twenty-three, but it's truth or consequences time for him—pay the 30,000 pounds he owes for some drugs he was moving, or face up to what a ruthless drug dealer has in store for him. Although his parents have long been divorced, they are the ones who are stepping up to the situation. His mother, Virginia, feels the only course of action is to pay up. His father, Francis, believes that James should accept responsibility for his acts. Complicating things is the fact that Francis is in the process of floating a new IPO and has all his assets targeted for that investment. His second wife, Rachel, is unlikely to want to mortgage their future to help James.
There's a lot of dickering back and forth between Virginia and Francis; but ultimately after understanding what will really happen to James if he doesn't pay up, Francis agrees it's best to cough up the money. It's not that easy, though, as circumstances change throughout the story and various plots and counterplots play out. At the same time, the human dynamics are boiling in all sorts of directions. Francis is still attracted to the volatile and appealing Virginia; meanwhile, Rachel is desperately drinking strange brews and hiding aphrodisiacs in Francis's food in an attempt to have the child that she thinks will be the ultimate glue in their marriage.
McKeowen's real strength in this book is in characterization. Virginia is a completely unique creation. She has a knack for rationalizing behavior while making anyone disagreeing with her point of view feel somehow lacking, which results in all manner of manipulation. The drug kingpin to whom the money is owed is quite a bit different from the stereotype that you might expect. He is a supremely rational man, careful to a fault, who is planning his retirement to Hawaii just as if he were a businessman for a corporation. Francis is generally in a state of confusion about what to do about his son, his ex-wife, his business, his new wife. The conflicts between the characters are very well done.
The plot was interesting enough, but there wasn't enough happening to warrant a 500-page book. At various points throughout my reading, I found my interest flagging. I was surprised that Grip was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best debut crime novel in 2005. Although I found the book reasonably enjoyable, I didn't consider it to be an outstanding effort.
When you're a parent, you face all kinds of dilemmas as far as making your children accountable for their own behavior. Whether they are eight or twenty-eight, it's often difficult to know when you should bail them out and when they need to face the music. James Carroll may be twenty-three, but it's truth or consequences time for him—pay the 30,000 pounds he owes for some drugs he was moving, or face up to what a ruthless drug dealer has in store for him. Although his parents have long been divorced, they are the ones who are stepping up to the situation. His mother, Virginia, feels the only course of action is to pay up. His father, Francis, believes that James should accept responsibility for his acts. Complicating things is the fact that Francis is in the process of floating a new IPO and has all his assets targeted for that investment. His second wife, Rachel, is unlikely to want to mortgage their future to help James.
There's a lot of dickering back and forth between Virginia and Francis; but ultimately after understanding what will really happen to James if he doesn't pay up, Francis agrees it's best to cough up the money. It's not that easy, though, as circumstances change throughout the story and various plots and counterplots play out. At the same time, the human dynamics are boiling in all sorts of directions. Francis is still attracted to the volatile and appealing Virginia; meanwhile, Rachel is desperately drinking strange brews and hiding aphrodisiacs in Francis's food in an attempt to have the child that she thinks will be the ultimate glue in their marriage.
McKeowen's real strength in this book is in characterization. Virginia is a completely unique creation. She has a knack for rationalizing behavior while making anyone disagreeing with her point of view feel somehow lacking, which results in all manner of manipulation. The drug kingpin to whom the money is owed is quite a bit different from the stereotype that you might expect. He is a supremely rational man, careful to a fault, who is planning his retirement to Hawaii just as if he were a businessman for a corporation. Francis is generally in a state of confusion about what to do about his son, his ex-wife, his business, his new wife. The conflicts between the characters are very well done.
The plot was interesting enough, but there wasn't enough happening to warrant a 500-page book. At various points throughout my reading, I found my interest flagging. I was surprised that Grip was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best debut crime novel in 2005. Although I found the book reasonably enjoyable, I didn't consider it to be an outstanding effort.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews