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Breakers

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About this listen

A pulsatingly tense, deeply moving psychological thriller from the number one best-selling Scottish author of Fault Lines.

A toxic family...a fight for survival...

Seventeen-year-old Tyler lives in one of Edinburgh’s most deprived areas. Coerced into robbing rich people’s homes by his bullying older siblings, he’s also trying to care for his little sister and his drug-addict mum.

On a job, his brother Barry stabs a homeowner and leaves her for dead, but that’s just the beginning of their nightmare, because the woman is the wife of Edinburgh’s biggest crime lord, Deke Holt.

With the police and the Holts closing in, and his shattered family in devastating danger, Tyler meets posh girl Flick in another stranger’s house, and he thinks she may just be his salvation...unless he drags her down too.

A pulsatingly tense psychological thriller, Breakers is also a breathtakingly brutal, beautiful and deeply moving story of a good kid in the wrong family, from one of Scotland’s finest crime writers.

©2019 Doug Johnstone (P)2019 Audible, Ltd City Life Coming of Age Crime Crime Fiction Crime Thrillers Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction International Mystery & Crime Literary Fiction Mystery Psychological Romance Romantic Suspense Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Urban Scotland Detective

Critic reviews

"A cracking and highly original thriller. Johnstone never fails to deliver." (Mark Billingham)

"This may be Doug Johnstone’s best book yet. An unsparing yet sympathetic depiction of Edinburgh’s ignored underclass, with terrific characterisation. Tense, pacey, filmic." (Ian Rankin)

"Breakers again shows that Doug Johnstone is a noir heavyweight and a master of gritty realism. This may be his finest novel yet." (Willy Vlautin)
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This was a fantastic listen Angus King brilliant as per usual. The book from the very offset had me engrossed crescendoing to an action packed finale all I can say is give it a go.

5 out of 5 across the board a really good listen

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Characters story and narration brilliant. I’m looking for another one by this author and as always, the narrator did a sterling job

Great story.

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I enjoyed this book. If you can get over the bad language and use of the c word then you may enjoy it. It is very violent in parts but it is also very human and touching in other parts. A bit far fetched but it is a story. I was looking for something a bit different and this was certainly that. I have just purchased another by this author .

Different

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Stark story with violence, love and endurance intertwined, beautifully written and narrated with impeccable phrasing by Angus King.

Powerful and poignant

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Narration by Angus King was excellent (aside from an odd pronunciation of Wauchope). The story moved along well, and kept me listening, though there weren't many surprises. If there was one weak area, it was in the final showdown, which was apparently a shoot-out, in a quiet residential area, yet there is no mention of there having been any reports of gunshot made by neighbours.
I will look for more by Doug Johnstone. Was already a fan of Angus King.

Gritty well constructed story

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