Grip

LoveReading Says

Set in 2000, and told from multiple points of view, Michael Wills’ Grip is certainly a gripping read for fans of family-centred thrillers as a middle-class milieu of bankers, lawyers and teachers are drawn into a dangerous drugs underworld.  

A rash act sees aspiring young documentary-maker James wind up owing drug dealer Roger Oates £30k. While he’d only done the deal to raise the cash to go to film school (law just isn’t his thing), James is now up to his neck in trouble. Trouble is, his banker father Francis Carroll is reluctant to stump up cash for the debt — he’s on the verge of doing a life-changing deal, and needs every penny he has.

Plus, his new wife is set on having a baby. At the same time, Virginia, Francis’ ex-wife and James’ mother, will stop at nothing to mend their son’s mess, while Roger the dealer will stop at nothing to get what he’s owed, being a mere year from retiring in Hawaii.  

In many ways, the two Mrs Carrolls, largely defined by the man who connects them, sit at the core of the story through juxtaposed tropes of a mother’s bone-deep drive to protect her son, and a woman’s desperation to bear a child. There’s also bristling tension between the women, with Virginia describing Rachel as “dumpy”, and Rachel uncomfortable with the way Virginia still looms large in Francis’ life. 

At the same time, Francis starts to lose his grip on securing vital investment, and Roger feels as if his dream move to Hawaii is slipping through his fingers. And all the while, the stranglehold of an increasingly dangerous situation tightens as all the novel’s players fight to regain their respective grips, resulting in a sensational, super-tense showdown.

Grip by Michael Wills is available to purchase here, in paperback.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About Grip

James Carroll only meant to do one deal to get to film school, but it went wrong. Now he owes £30,000 to drug dealer Roger Oates.

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