Raining Fire

Ethan is growing up on an inner-city estate dominated by gangs. When he is selected to go to the United States as part of a prestigious football training programme, he believes he has a real chance to escape the estate and build a better future for himself. But then his brother Alex is charged with assault, and Ethan finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into an explosive situation fraught with violence and danger.

Set in an unnamed northern city inspired by Liverpool and Manchester, and drawing on real-life instances of gang violence and gun crime, this is a powerful thriller about power, loyalty, friendship and violence. Fast-paced courageous and straight-talking, Alan Gibbons' writing always does justice to the moral complexities of the problems it sets out to explore.