The Levels | Sean Cregan

The Levels
by Sean Cregan
Pub: Headline
Released: 5th August 2010
346 pages

Once again I’ve been immensely impressed by the quality of some of the thriller writing out there.

The Levels follows disgraced ex cop Kate Friedman, Turner who is ex CIA and Ghost as they try to find out what is really going on in the derelict housing project The Levels.

Individually and between them they have to negotiate the strange Mr Thorne and his men, the violent killer known as the Sixth Avenue Beast and The Levels own resident horror, Sorrow, all without help from the police who are at best corrupt. Trying to work out who to trust and the truth of what has happened in the shadow of the tower is not easy, especially when it seems everyone wants you dead.

The story has multiple layers, while Turner is basically the lead and the main story is pulled in around him both Kate and Ghost have a past of their own to deal with in addition to the challenges of staying alive in the present. Their various situations overlap and are leading them all in the same direction, down into the depths of the project.

It’s atmospheric and creepy and aside from everything else that happens The Level’s itself is a horrifying proposition. Events unfold to add to the existing horror and provide a relentless and anxious read. The project itself has a somewhat post apocalyptic feel and as the reader is drawn further in it’s easy to forget that life continues as normal outside. The bleakness and desperation of the place and it’s people is poignant and never more clearly expressed than when Turner and Ghost sit on the roof of a building and she describes what each of the visible landmarks is.

Cregan’s main characters are convincing and easy to empathise with, the readers relationship with them building as events unfold. Turner is more compassionate than might be expected, Kate manages to balance the difficult strong female lead role and Ghost is a strange mixture of hard edged and vulnerable that might be expected of a child from such extreme circumstances. The side characters are a mixture of local colour and thriller staples but none of them conform completely to cliché giving the novel a fresher and somewhat darker feel.

It’s a dark, moody novel and maintains nail biting tension throughout. The last moments of the book hit just the right tone, but I won’t say more about that.

Un:Bound will be interviewing Sean Cregan later this month at the Theakstons Crime Festival in Harrogate