Green River Rising

Unrelenting action and characters that are brought to life so vividly. Willocks weaves an intricate prison tale and it is so hard to put it down. A must read!

Doctor Ray Klein is a prisoner in the hellhole known as Green River State Penitentiary, Texas' toughest prison. He has made a good life for himself there, using his medical skills to win the respect of his fellow inmates. In non-medical matters, his actions are governed by a motto he has taped to his mirror: NOT MY F***ING BUSINESS. This policy has kept him alive and sane. As the novel begins, Klein obtains the prize he has been seeking: parole. In twenty-four hours, he will emerge from Green River a free man. But fate is not kind. Shortly after he receives the good news, a riot, induced by the machinations of a manic depressive warden, erupts. Klein does his best to avoid trouble, but is forced to take a more active role when he learns that a colleague, Dr. Juliette Devlin, is trapped in the infirmary on the other side of the facility. Accompanied by a ragtag group of convicts (one inmate asks, "Where's Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen?"), he travels through the very bowels of the prison to rescue her. This book is hard-edged, brutal and claustrophobic, full of horrifying detail. Willocks puts you inside the prison with the rest of the convicts--it becomes your world, your only point of reference. Willocks is eloquent and painfully direct. He spares the reader nothing. Green River Rising is a harrowing fictional trip through a very realistic hell--be prepared.

I was a prisoner for 7 years in 4 different prisons in Washington State and it was during my incarceration that I discovered this book. To boil it down into a nutshell, you could say its like DIE HARD during a prison riot, with a lone protagonist pitted against some seriously depraved adversaries-- but that doesn't do it justice; this book just drips authentic atmosphere--it's as evocative as the prison writings of Edward Bunker. I was completely flabbergasted when I found out the author had not only NOT done time himself, but was actually an Englishman to boot! My hat is off to Tim Willocks; without ever having spent any time in an American prison that I know of, he has captured something as real as anything ever written by inmates themselves. What still stands out in my mind are the well drawn motivations of the various factions warring inside the prison and the absolute vileness of some of the villains.

Despite my initial reservations about a book with what one can only describe as a run of the mill plot, within the first couple of chapters I was captivated. The Author takes you so deep into a dark, violent and enclosed world that you feel you can almost smell the carnage and taste the fear. Whilst there are some poorly improbable moments in this book eg. the sex scenes, glibly glossing over these allows you to enjoy what I can only describe as an INTENSE READ.

Green River Rising is a brilliantly written book about hardened prison life, which other authers wont tread. Shocking, violent, you wont be able to put it down. A must

I loved this book. Very well written with real characters and bar none the sexiest love scene I've almost ever read in a thriller. This book is smart and scary. It sizzles. Read it!