Berserk

Chas and his troubled mates flirt with danger, girls and law-breaking, in this humorous, gritty story that becomes an irresistible farce-come-thriller.

Chas' best mate, hard-man Devil, has just chopped off Chas' finger. Chas has few good role models at home either. He gets by on a mix of thrill-seeking petty crime, support from a few who believe in him, and fantasising about a relationship with sexy Lexi.

It's clear he's a teenager whose life could easily go to the bad. When creepy Lenny Darling, a former death-row prisoner, appears in Chas' home town, Chas feels growing unease; as sinister events unfold he discovers how the behaviours of our past and present can affect our future.

A compassionate, social warning from a writer who knows just what they are doing. Superb teenage reading.