The Stretch

After reading Stephen Leather's THE STRETCH and, previously, his THE CHINAMAN, this author has become a personal favorite of mine to at least equal the enormously talented thriller scribbler, Gerald Seymour. Samantha "Sam" Greene is fifteen months separated from her philandering husband of twenty-some years, Terry. Together, they'd raised three children: Laura, Jamie and Trisha. Sam had always thought hubby to be just an entrepreneur managing his nightclub, modeling agency, and courier service. Now, Terry is convicted of murdering a small time drug-dealer and is sent off to Her Majesty's Prison for life. It isn't until Terry asks Sam to take over the reins of his business that she shockingly realizes the extent of his underworld activity. But, faced with legal fees, mortgage payments, Jamie's university tuition, and 24/7 care for her debilitated mother-in-law, Sam is forced to oversee dealings in police payoffs, black-market liquor, cannabis smuggling, and the importation of counterfeit currency. Oddly, she proves surprisingly adept at it. And, when Terry is unexpectedly released from the gaol on new evidence, he finds out how talented she really is. Oh, does he ever. There are no heroes in lilly-white hats in THE STRETCH. Though he truly loves his family despite his cheatin' ways, Terry's a charming rascal capable of heavy-handed brutality to maintain his criminal empire. On the other hand, Sam proves she can be just as unscrupulous, though she operates with finesse and, um, compassion. In any case, it's Sam that the reader roots for, certainly not the unsavory copper, Detective Chief Inspector Frank Welch, who made the case against Terry and is now out to get his missus. By default perhaps, the only truly admirable character of any importance seems to be Andy McKinley, the unfailingly polite, dependable, and circumspect bodyguard that Terry assigns to drive his wife on her appointed rounds. The Gerald Seymour novels are consistently engrossing because of the moral gray areas in conflicts at the civilized world's grittier margins in which his protagonists dwell, and in which battles there are no clear winners and losers, only Pyrhhic victories. Here, in THE STRETCH, Leather presents an unremarkable, basically law-abiding citizen driven to extremes of antisocial behavior in order to protect the wellbeing of herself and her family. Which one of us might not do the same if backed into a corner? If that isn't a gray area, I don't know what is. Sam, you go girl!

I'm on a Stephen Leather kick at the moment. I'm buying up everything of his I can find, and I'm finishing them off as a priority, usually one per day or so. This one is up to his usual standard. Well up. It races along with twists and turns, death and violence, humour and adventure, spice and drama. Full of exotic colour, even when the locations are well-known.

A great read, a morality tale of sorts where the bad guys win and the good guys turn out to be not so good... Leather deserves to be better known in the States. The Stretch was filmed for Sky TV, as was his book The Bombmaker. I read The Stretch in one sitting - Leather's books generally are next to impossible to put down and this one is no exception. It's the story of a gangleader's wife who has to take over the reins of her husband's organisation when he gets sent to prison for a murder he says he didn't commit. Gripping stuff.