I've read all of Martyn Waites' other books and really enjoyed them. He writes some of the best crime novels in Britain. (Candleland is especially good). However, with this one he has gone right to the top in my opinion. He's taken a theme, the miners' strike and its legacy, that no other writer would touch and turned in a book that's moving, exciting and angry by turns. But never boring, worthy, or dull. His characters are so well drawn, particularly the women, and his evocation of picketline violence mesmerising. I felt I was there. Yet he never forgets it's the people that are important. Anyone interested in Britain today should read it. And weep. And get angry.
It's brilliant. Waites' masterpiece.