Flake: When coke-dealing outlaw bikers come up against La Cosa Nostra, all bets are off...

by Ian Hough

It's winter on the cocaine pipeline in Western Massachusetts. When the biggest outlaw biker gang in the rural Northeast collide headlong with the Mafia, the result isn't pretty. Martin, an English immigrant, is caught smack in the middle of the war, and the snow-ride proves even darker than the city he left behind. Bernie Del Monti, head of the biker crew, has taken Martin under his wing. Martin's father-in-law, Ralph Cerillo, is a mafia capo and Del Monti's biggest distributor. When the girlfriend of Springfield mob boss Paul Vinti disappears after a biker party, old differences explode to the surface and the guns come out. A series of tit-for-tat incidents escalates, until Vinti brings in his most feared and evil hit-man. Del Monti responds with everything he has and Martin finds himself a major player in the heart of a primal winter struggle. Flake is the first episode in The Undesirables Trilogy, by Ian Hough, author of Perry Boys.

242 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2013

Reviews

[Raven · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part I enjoyed this depiction of Martin, an Englishman in exile, sucked into the dirty and brutal world of drug dealing, and grappling with the loyalties of family ties. There is a good pace to the writing as we bear witness to the less than savoury activities of Martin’s cohorts, as he finds himself enmeshed in a world of violence with a host of characters that could have walked in from the set of Breaking Bad. Hough captures the dialogue of his characters extremely well and there is a good pared down style to this. Equally the sense of location is very good with an atmospheric feel to depict the cold and harshness of the locale. I did feel that some of the writing could have been tightened up slightly and there may be one or two too many references to Martin’s relationship with his homeland and his love of Manchester United (!), but that aside, this one is definitely worth a read.

[Dominic Lavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good..

"The one thing in life that will remain constant is change" certain football teams have undergone a change in management and line up. The Royal lineage of the UK has had to be redrafted and Ian Hough the Red (not be confused with Inov the Red a Russian snooker player) has switched from fact to fiction.
Not satisfied with producing two of the best non fiction offerings on the casual/hoolie genre that the early part of the century has seen, Monsieur Hough has taken on the challenge of the novel and by the look of things will be finishing in the top half of the table this season.
Without spoiling the story too much Flake is the tale of an Englishman not in New York but Massachusetts in winter rubbing shoulders with mafia naughties and trying to make ends meet. I shouldn't spoil the story too much but there's drink, drugs, gunfire and intrigue.
The first prong of the Red Devil's trident pinned me happily in place for an evening. Lets hope the next two do the same and I hope it's not rude to mention my own offering....Last Seen in Bangkok

cheers