Beast of Burden [Paperback]

If "the F-bomb" is one of your euphemisms...

If you don't want to turn to the Urban Dictionary to understand what's happening...

If you're looking for a happy ending...

If you think a poofta is something you use to apply dusting powder...

...then this book isn't for you.

But if you want a gritty tale about a driven man, victim of a stroke, whipping boy of a powerful vindictive family, a wary survivor... then perhaps it is.

Cal Innes is recently out of prison, coming to terms with the effects of his stroke, which leaves him struggling for the right words and walking warily and unsteadily with a cane. He's working (kind of) as a PI out of a boxing gym for ex-cons, run by his friends Paulo and Frank, who have a few dark secrets of their own. Enter Morris Tiernan, Manchester ganglord, the Uncle himself and big time bad guy, who wants Cal to find his son Mo. The problem is, Mo and Morris and Morris' daughter Allison are responsible not only for the death of Cal's brother, but for Cal's jail time and just about everything else that's wrong with Cal's life. Besides which Cal's pretty sure Mo is dead. Add to this equation a sadistic rogue copper with anger management and revenge issues, who's convinced Cal is up to no good and will stop at almost nothing to throw him back in jail.

So, while finding Mo Tiernan doesn't sound like his dream job, it's a job, and Cal takes it. It leads him though slums and alleys and bars and squats confirming what he already knew - that Mo Tiernan is quite dead.

This is the fourth and final book in the Cal Innes series. It's the only one I read, and it does stand on its own. To understand the undercurrents, it would probably be helpful to read the three earlier books in which, as another reviewer tells us, Cal has been "run over by a car, beaten within an inch of his life, shot in the ear, left for dead on a desert roadside, and halfway blown up by a car bomb. " So I guess he's used to the abuse.

With that in mind, here's my Top ten List of Things That are Great About "Beast of Burden."

10. You will learn all sorts of Manchester slang. Much of it should probably not be used in polite company. Much can be understood by context. The rest can be looked up in the online Urban Dictionary.

9. Worth it for the description of the author alone: Ray Banks has been a double-glazing salesman, a croupier, a dole monkey (Jobless northerner, usually 18-30, lacks basic language skills. Hangs around bus shelters and kiddies parks waiting for the day he can go collect his benefits. Thank you Urban Dictionary, once again), and a disgruntled temp.

8. A reminder that drugs are bad for you. (Okay. You probably didn't need a reminder, but this is quite a graphic reminder in case you were feeling tempted.)

7. A jolting view of the darker side of Manchester. If you've only read about it in travel books, this will give you another perspective entirely.

6. Different points of view. Each chapter is written either from Cal Innes' point of view, or that of Detective Sergeant "Donkey" Donkin. It reveals two different personal hells. But you'll have no trouble deciding who the good guy is.

5. Some of the most colorful use of expletives in crime fiction.

4. It's modern noir. The genre is not dead. It is alive and kicking.

3. Dark as it is, the work has a sense of humor. Sure, Cal is limping along, struggling to form words. Still, for Theater of the Bizarre and Strange, I recommend the scene where he decides to apply for a barrista job in a trendy coffee shop.

2. It's fast-paced. The story moves. The characters are well-developed. You might not want to know them, but you'll start to understand them.

1. Sometimes the good guy doesn't seem like that good a guy. And often bad things happen to the good guy. But seeing our good guy trying to do a good thing, knowing the repercussions will be disastrous, kind of shows us that Don Quixote lives on.

Tilt on.

First, this is not a casual lets-take-it-to-the-beach book. I'm not even sure it's bedside reading but it's eminently readable.

Cal Innes has not had the best of lives and, as the story starts, he's not in a position to see much improvement. Freshly sprung from prison he has to construct a life based on his past which hardly provides solid material. Author Banks is careful to give us all sides of the story about him from quite divergent viewpoints none of which add up to the golden haired boy as hero. Set in the grit of the English Midlands, he's a type well known and recognized there, the con not quite bad but one of which to be wary. The exteriors and interiors are palpable really to the point of making one want to open a window to smell fresh air. This is particularly true when he establishes himself as a private investigator using a gym as his "office".

It's a tightly woven story that may seem confusing but the events are on the level even if the people aren't. The language may or may not distract you but if a lava flow of profanity will offend, back off. Also, the dialect may puzzle American readers. It's graphic to the point that at moments, if you're a man, you may feel your testicles in your throat. You come to sympathize with Cal if not empathize with him.

For a certain kind of reader-one, for example, who loved, not liked "Fight Club" this is your meat, red, rare and, in it's own way chewable. While you cannot put it down, you may find yourself averting your eyes as you turn the page.

It fits the fantasy life many of us might like to imagine from the safety of the printed page but makes you want to side with Cal, fight with Cal, be perplexed with Cal.. but always from a distance. Good writing, good read.

The last of Ray Banks' brilliant Cal Innes quartet isn't just a cracking crime novel. It's also a chunk of searing, social realism that contains gripping character studies.

Beast Of Burden shows Ray Banks to be a writer at the peak of his powers. Magnificent.

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