Still Bleeding | Steve Mosby

Still Bleeding
by Steve Mosby
Pub: Orion
328 pages
Cover photo: Jonthan Ring

There is something about a good British thriller that I just connect with much more quickly than with even the best American ones. I don’t know what it is, tone, context, character, my own familiarity or preferences. Maybe it’s just something about good british thriller writers. Regardless, while a good American thriller still takes me a little while to adjust to.

In the first few chapters the reader is taken through a number of points of view quickly, witnessing a series of events that gradually expose their links. Although the multiple POV approach continues throughout the novel, it is at it’s most extreme here and is deeply affective. By the time Alex came onto the scene I was not only completely hooked but I needed to know what had happened and like Alex, I wanted to know why. From there a smaller number of strands run for the majority of the book, Alex and Paul Kearney being the primary voices, investigating from different angles and stumbling over much of the same information in different ways. following the bread crumb trails left by both the killers and the dead. Toward the end additional viewpoints return helping build to a dramatic climax and some final revelations.

The story has sufficient complexity to keep the reader guessing and on those occasions you figure something out before it’s revealed it’s a thrill to get it right, rather than a given. I read quickly because I was anxious for the next snippet of information. There was a real sense of putting the big picture together clue by clue, seeking out subtext and fleeting half thoughts as the various voices add to the data available. It was tense and disturbing and for the most part horribly plausible. The ending manages the perfect balancing act and I would love to discuss it in more detail but am loathe to risk spoilers.

The characters are easy to connect with although Mosby doesn’t spend much time exploring them in depth, it’s a thriller after all. Still Steve is an effective writer, evoking everything we need to know about the characters, making the reader react quickly to each significant character no matter how little we hear of their voice. In fact Marie, who plays very little role in the book in some ways, provides some of the strongest moments of empathy, which in turn helps connect the reader to Alex.

This wonderfully macabre and tense tale delivers a consistent sense of unease and a satisfying read.

Un:Bound will be interviewing Steve Mosby along with John Rickards at the Theakstons Crime Festival in July.