Mortal Coil

by Anthony McGowan

There is a London you might not know. A London of dingy pubs and brutal alleyway encounters; a seething metropolis populated by weasel-faced burglars, psychotic doormen, and professional killers with cold hearts and cruel intentions. It's a place Matthew Moriarty knows only too well. Jobless, hopeless, and half-crippled by a beating, Moriarty is at rock bottom, left with only a dwindling supply of prescription painkillers for company. And when he accepts a lucrative offer to track down a missing friend, things get a whole lot worse. As the search leads Moriarty into mortal danger, one thing becomes clear: mess with this city and it messes with you.

Genres: Crime

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Anthony John McGowan is an English author of books for children, teenagers and adults. He is the winner of the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal for Lark. In addition to his 2020 win, he has been twice longlisted (for The Knife That Killed Me in 2008 and Brock in 2014) and once shortlisted (for Rook in 2018) for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and is the winner of the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize for Henry Tumour.

Reviews

[erocchio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very unsavory people in a very unsavory place all meet for one reason or another to do unsavory things. Not my kind of story but the author does describe things very vividly--hard to get some of the descriptions out of my memory. I liked the main character but he had his (massive) flaws too. I finished reading it because I needed closure and some saving grace for this story.