Sixteen years old, naïve and trusting, Alan is tricked in to committing a terrible crime. Unable to face his family, he ran. But he could not outrun his guilt. From his home in Canada to the idyllic South Pacific, to the frigid waters of the North Sea, to the heat and corruption of Western Africa, Alan kept on running. To survive, Alan made the wrong kind of friends, learned deadly skills, and developed bad habits. Bruised and battered by life, Alan returns home to discover the truth about his crime, his family and himself. But is the truth more painful and unbearable than the lie? More importantly, who deserves to die?
Colin Knight was born in Manchester, England to working class parents – his father painted houses and drove delivery trucks; his mother worked in a retirement home. He and his four siblings shared a small three-bedroom house on an unremarkable city owned housing estate ten miles from the city centre. From seven to sixteen years old, he held newspaper and milk delivery jobs, which he did, before school. Educated to state standards, at an experimental public high-school for boys, Colin graduated at sixteen with minimum credentials. At eighteen, he joined an American international company as a general office helper. By twenty-three Colin had developed an aptitude for product management and marketing. His career with the American company provided work assignments in Italy and Switzerland, as well as travel to many European countries. In 1987, Colin immigrated to Canada to work for a distributor of the American company. In 1991, he took a chance and quit work to attend university. By 1997, Colin had obtained a BA Honors Degree in Political Science, and a MA Degree in International Relations. In 1999, after a brief return to the private sector, Colin joined the Canadian Federal Government. During his fifteen-year government career, Colin worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Public Safety Department, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and most recently, he was a Senior Policy Analyst in the Federal Privy Council Office. Government work and assignments took Colin to Europe, Asia, Latin America and the US. Colin retired from the government in 2014 to focus on family, writing and life. Colin lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife and their three children. In between housework, groceries, shuttling children and general family support, Colin is working on his next novel. Squash, soccer, learning to play the guitar, and quality beer relieve stress and writers block.
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway a few years back. I apologize for taking so long to get to it.
This is a very well written book that I just couldn't connect with. It's easy to figure out that this is a revenge story, but it's also about someone who sees themselves as a victim blaming everything he does on something or someone else.
Mr Knight has skillfully crafted a tremendously entertaining and at times quite disturbing story in Some People. I have also read Knight's "Bad Analysis" which was an excellent read, but this certainly trumps it. He has great ability and should very much be considered a serious author as opposed to a hobbyist writer.
Other reviewers have detailed the story, which is rich in variety, with gritty content and emotion. It's a book that will stay with me for some time.
A very interesting read full of guilt, revenge and violence. Also there was a very interesting double twist which gave the book an added depth which I personally found quite interesting.
Highly recommended although perhaps it might be best to not read this on public transport like I did, as for some reason I got a few funny looks...
What did I just read? I won this in a giveaway on Goodreads, not really knowing what to expect. What I got was a meandering story about someone who did something stupid and spent the rest of his life going from bad to worse.
Alan has lived life of vengeance and loathing since a life changing, guilt filled event when he was 16. He escalates his level of violence as years go by until he himself is at the lowest level. A windfall inheritance allows him to return home, to that turning point in his life and seek revenge against those who truly deserve to die because of what they did to him. The book held my interest throughout, reading about Alan's de-evolution, his world of cruelty, his formation of his own 'family' with others experiencing the cruelty that he did. Why did I like it? Because it caused me to think. To process and reprocess the ending. If we are to accept the premise that some people deserve to die, then ..... Alan deserves to die. I'd like a sequel that'd answer that question... I got this book from Goodreads for an honest opinion.
Great read, could not put it down, wanting to know, what happens to the main character next. Very gripping story line, tale of guilt, pain, vengeance and redemption with a plot twist in the end, that no one can see coming. Very well researched, painstakingly raw emotionally, it has a lot of detailed and visceral imagery. I loved the exotic places and tangles, danger and close calls, that main character finds himself over and over again. Being “down and out”, more than once or twice, he tries to find a refuge and forget the past, but in the end, one cannot escape from oneself., no matter how idyllic place can be. You need to survive and face your past, your demons...politically and socially charged, it is a moral tale that takes you on an exciting journey and makes you think, what would I do? In the end, it is an exciting ride all the way!
Very good book, kept me engaged, and wanting know what happens next. I would rate the body of the book at a 4. I enjoyed the flow of the story telling, being told by Alan confessing his past to the dying Mr Grey in rehab. The best part of the book was reading about all Alan's misadventures every place he ran away to. How he always managed to get himself mixed up in the dirty underworld no matter where he went. I would rate the ending of the book at a 3, however. I didn't feel like Alan learned anything. He kept blaming others for everything bad that happened. He then gets his revenge and punishes those he felt responsible, but he never takes ownership that he played a part in how his life turned out. I felt that the ending went a little flat and was too quick to wrap up. I would have like Alan to look into Alex's business a little more. Discover more evidence that he continued to be a horrible person after high school. It alluded to it when Alan questioned why he had a bruiser as the business manager but it never went any further with it. Overall, I did enjoy the story and would recommend the book to others.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
It is about a story of a guy who ran away from home for the past twenty years thinking he did a hideous crime but in truth he did not. But in his time awayf rom home he finds himself doing other crimes in his travels to survive.
When he finally comes home he tries to make amends but finds out the truth behind things as he ends up In a rehab place.. How life comes into a full circle and the things that were hidden and taken the wrong way.
An interesting read of running from one thing into another,
In the beginning and the middle was going slow for me and I thought I would never finish this book but I persevered and it came through at the end as it got more intense and interesting. I thought wow I wasn’t expecting that, sad and tragic how people can go through life not knowing the real truth and destroying their lives because of lies and not communicating enough to find out what really happened. I think it was well written, it just needs to have a bit more suspense throughout the book.
This is a story about a man who stumbles through his life misunderstanding what has happened. He does some different and terrible things because he never took the time to question what was happening. I felt it was an average read that did really keep me wondering what was next. However, it does make you stop and think.
Alan spent 20 years terrorized by guilt for an action taken by him as a teenager. These years are spent drowning his guilt with running, drugs, alcohol and violence. He finally goes to rehab and decides what he must do for revenge. This is an excellent book with a blindsiding twist.
This was my first Colin Knight book but definitely not the last. A great tale with strong characters and twists & turns in all the right places to keep the pages turning. 100% recommended.
What a spectacular thrill ride of a book this was. Wanting to be with the popular boys his age leads him down a path he wishes he had never started. He runs from his guilty conscience for 20 years. In this period of time he travels the world doing things he never could imagine. Great storytelling.
Colin Knight weaves quite a story of guilt and vengeance in "Some People Deserve to Die". Alan has lived quite a life and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to learn about it all! This book is definitely a good read!
Mr Knight has skillfully crafted a tremendously entertaining and at times quite disturbing story in Some People. I have also read Knight's "Bad Analysis" which was an excellent read, but this certainly trumps it. He has great ability and should very much be considered a serious author as opposed to a hobbyist writer.
Other reviewers have detailed the story, which is rich in variety, with gritty content and emotion. It's a book that will stay with me for some time.
I love this & I can't wait for more. I will be also leaving a review on Goodreads @ Amazon. And letting everyone know about it. So i gave it a 5 Stars.
WOW!!! what an intriguing story, I struggled to put this fantastic book down! it was full of twists and very entertaining (although somewhat disturbing) characters, and I loved the way it was written. It was such an easy, engaging read... Colin Knight has to be one of the best writers out there.
I definitely recommend this book, especially for those that like thrilling tales of crime.