A NUMBERS GAME BY RJ DARK (BOOK REVIEW)

4/6/2021

A NUMBERS GAME BY RJ DARK (BOOK REVIEW BY KIT POWER)

So, disclosures up front: RJ is a friend. My review policy remains unaffected by friendship, and works as it always has; with very rare exceptions, I only review work that I finish and enjoy. And I enjoyed this a great deal. Still, being upfront, do with this information as you will.

Second, this is not a horror novel, it’s a crime novel. Y’all are probably sick of me banging on about the porous nature of genre and how everything’s really horror if you stare hard enough; I’m not gonna unsay any of that now, but it’d be dumb not to aknowlege that by the standards of almost everyone who isn’t me, this is obviously crime fiction.

A Numbers Game follows Malachite Jones, a recovering drug addict, who lives nearby the poverty stricken estate he grew up in, in a post industrial northern city. His occupation is spirit medium - which he cheerfully admits in the opening chapter is an absolute fraud - and for most of his regular clients, he acts as much as a therapist as anything else.

His best friend is Jackie Singh Khattar, a career criminal (protection rackets for sure, and hints of other enterprises) who manages to stay operational in an area which already has two local gangs by the simple expedience of having a terrifying capacity for violence when pushed.

They’re really, really lovely.

Seriously. Mal is our POV character, and he’s a delight; whimsical, self deprecating, frequently deploying deadpan asides to the reader, he’s an absolute charmer, despite ‘working’ in a field I find straight up despicable. Similarly, Jackie, whilst obviously pretty scary (Mal is certainly scared of him) is also charming, funny, with a fierce loyalty to Mal and an equally fierce code in his ‘business’. One one level, the pair are clearly dysfunctional; in their first scene together, Jackie is demanding protection money from Mal, only to give him back a portion of it to allow Mal to make his bills. Jackie is not a nice person. But as the narrative develops, and we see more of his personality, the relationship comes into focus; and by the end of the story, I was rooting hard for them both.

The narrative begins with a widow (whose husband has familial links to one of the two big local criminal gangs) and a missing lottery ticket. Jackie has sent her Mal’s way, ostensibly so he can use his connections to the spirit world to locate the ticket. Events very quickly spiral completely out of control, and Mal and Jackie find themselves at the centre of escalating gang tensions, kidnappings, violence, and an aggressive police investigation.

Dark has crafted a classic crime narrative here; a protagonist hopelessly out of his depth, a deepening mystery that throws more and more questions at the reader, and a sense of escalating threat that, by the end of the novel, left me with a real sense of dread about Mal’s fate. Likewise, the central relationship of Mal and Jackie evokes Crais’ Cole and Pike (namechecked in the afterword), as well as Lansdales’ iconic Hap and Leonard; at the same time, Mal and Jackie are very much their own men, with their characters and friendship dynamic rooted firmly in the North of England.

Likewise, the mystery, fine tangle that it is, takes in the kinds of crimes and acts that happen in poverty stricken communities, and Dark doesn’t skimp on either the brutality of the crimes or the horror of the material circumstances; the book is often angry, but never judgemental, even of some very nasty people. More importantly, the story is shot through with wry humour, with Mal often deploying jokes as a psychological self defence mechanism. It’s a canny choice, and for me walked the line well; leavening some very tense moments without ever quite spilling over into mean spirited caricature.

The mystery itself escalates with a pleasing out-of-control feel, stakes ramping up and risks mounting, building to a genuinely thrilling conclusion. It has that quality which I associate with some of my favourite crime fiction, the ‘just-one-more-chapter’ pull that keeps you turning the pages way past lights out.

But for me, the beating heart is Mal and Jackie, and I’m thrilled to learn that this isn’t the last tale Dark has penned featuring these two characters; again, like the great crime couples they pay a nodding tribute to, I’m desperate to learn more about them and their relationship,and see what lunatic scheme they get caught up in in the future. Most of all, I just want to spend more time with them.

And you really can’t ask for much more than that.

A Numbers Game is a thrilling crime debut, a pure slice of Northern underclass noir with heart, humor, and grit in equal measures. And in terms of raw entertainment, it’s one of the best things I’ve read this year.

KP

26/5/21

One dead man and a missing lottery ticket.
Two family members who need that money to get away from the rundown Blades Edge estate.
Three local gangsters who want that money for themselves.

Meet Malachite Jones – the foremost (and only) psychic medium on the gritty Blades Edge estate. All he wants are two things: a name that isn’t ‘Malachite’, and a quiet life. And maybe some real psychic powers, but he’s making a living without them.

Janine Stanbeck wants to find her dead husband Larry’s winning ticket and escape Blades Edge with her son. And she thinks Mal can help her.

But Larry’s dad is the crime lord of the estate, and he wants that ticket for himself, and worse for Mal, he's not the only criminal with his eyes on it. Add in two coppers desperate to nick Mal's best, only, and admittedly quite dangerous, friend, Jackie Singh Kattar, and Blades Edge is getting pretty crowded.

Malachite Jones might not really be able to talk to the dead, but if he and his friend Jackie Singh Kattar can’t find that money and a solution that pleases everyone they’re likely to be in need of a psychic medium themselves.

The first Mal Jones and Jackie Singh Kattar adventure: a chaotic rollercoaster ride through a Yorkshire landscape full of double crossing friends, dogged police, psychotic gangster and voices from the other side.