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Dial 999 by H.L. Raven Reality Asylum Books
book review by L. Alsonso
"My cigarette was now an oxygen tank and I inhaled desperately. This had to be a nightmare. Any second I'd wake up sweaty and breathless, but safe in my own room with my own shadows."
It is 1977 and Jon Hunter has just moved from America to the UK in the hopes of being a part of the burgeoning punk scene he idolizes. Passionate about challenging the system, Jon wants to affect the kind of change he only hears about in his favorite bands' anti-establishment lyrics. What he encounters instead are strung-out kids more interested in scoring their next fix than they are in being part of any kind of social movement, punk or otherwise.
When too many of his friends begin to surface dead from apparent drug overdoses, it is up to Jon and his determined girlfriend Mary to look past the obvious and recognize the deaths for what they are—murder. But identifying the killer and his motive proves to be a tricky endeavor, particularly when the pair's investigation begins to arouse a dangerous suspicion. Can they find the perpetrator before becoming targets themselves?
In this fast-paced and gritty first novel, Raven engages the reader from the first sentence. Set smack in the center of London's punk revolution, Raven's knowledge of the era, its legendary music and chaotic culture, lends authenticity and flavor to this taught, intricate mystery. The story is buoyed by a host of eccentric and fatally flawed characters whose highly charged verbal exchanges serve the plot well. Propelled forward by the distinct voice of the book's tenacious hero, Dial 999 succeeds as a mystery on all points and sets the stage for what should be an intriguing series.