Rating: 5/5Review:
Another excellent instalment
The first two books in this series were excellent and Khurrum Rahman
maintains that standard in Ride Or Die. It is another exciting,
very well-written thriller with real moral weight and a continuing
insight into the dilemmas and difficulties of a British Muslim
confronted with jihadi terrorism. (It’s worth saying that you
really need to read the first two to understand fully what is going
on here, but that won’t be any hardship whatsoever.)
Following the
traumatic events of the previous two books, Jay wants out from MI5
and all that...er...stuff (not exactly the word he would use).
However, he is dragged back in by developments and the need to
confront his father. An extremely involving and exciting story
develops, taking him to places and people he’d much rather not go
to in this country, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are major and
unexpected developments both politically and personally, but I won’t
reveal any spoilers.
The book is narrated
partly by Jay and partly by Imy whom readers will remember from Home
Grown Hero. The two voices are excellently done, with Jay’s brash,
expletive-strewn, egotistical but human persona contrasting with
Imy’s grief-stricken, passionate, restrained voice. The humour of
East Of Hounslow has largely gone as Jay’s small-time-drug-dealer
past recedes and his life is dominated by the most serious of events
and issues, but the serious analysis delivered in his still robust
Honslow style is still there and still extremely shrewd and readable.
This remains a
really classy and very enjoyable series, of which there is more to
come. I’m already looking forward to the next instalment and I can
recommend this very warmly indeed.
(My thanks to HQ for
an ARC via NetGalley.)
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