Reviewed by Rod McLary
Musicians who have great success with their first album often say that creating their sophomore album is the more challenging. How do you replicate the success of the first without replicating the content? If that holds true for writers as well, then Alex Dook has managed it very well. His sophomore novel Nothing Personal is as tense and exciting as his first – Gunpowder Creek – but with very different characters and a darker plotline.
Lola McKenzie is caught in a dead-end job while she is desperately trying to pay off the debts incurred by her father with his rather cavalier approach to money. To complicate matters, he is beginning to demonstrate early signs of dementia. Suddenly an opportunity to break the deadlock appears – a bag of cash is readily available if she wants to take it. After a brief – and unsuccessful wrestle with her conscience – she succumbs to temptation and grabs the bag of cash. But – and this is a very big ‘but’ which sets in train a series of events way out of her control – the bag also contains a USB stick with very incriminating information on it.
There is a second plotline, and, in some ways, this is the more interesting of the two. Bradley and Johnny are half-brothers and sons of Connor Parker who runs a very lucrative protection racket. Bradley and Johnny are fierce rivals and barely tolerate each other. In Bradley’s words: [he] was the first draft and Johnny was version 2.0 [52]. And Bradley, when Connor passes on, is expected to ‘step aside for the clearly more talented and ambitious sibling’. This sibling rivalry sets up a very tense and exciting narrative where the brothers are separately and desperately trying to retrieve the USB stick. Include a persistent police detective in the mix and the result is a very violent and breath-stopping chase to the finishing line. Deaths and mayhem ensue.
But there is a dark humour in the writing as well. The exchanges between Johnny and Bradley can be quite funny but with a touch of bitterness as in this exchange:
I got stabbed, remember?
Why do I get the feeling you’ll be bringing that up far, like, months?
Try sounding like even ten per cent less of a little bitch. [53]
It is not all death and destruction though. Each of the characters is well-drawn and the family dynamics add a depth which is sometimes absent from other crime stories. In addition, there is third narrative where Lola meets Chris and they attempt to start a relationship but the shootings and related violence are somewhat inhibiting.
All in all, Nothing Personal is a great read. I said in my review of Gunpowder Creek [2025] that it was a fine debut novel and promises great things to come. Well – here they are. Highly recommended.
Nothing Personal
[2026]
by Alex Dook
Echo Publishing
ISBN: 978 1 7865 8768 8
$34.99; 324pp
QRC has interviewed Alex Dook. To read our interview, click here.