Reviews

EDITOR REVIEWS COMIC MASTERPIECE.
I have just indulged myself in a rare treat. I have just finished reading a fine piece of comic writing. You know the type, the one that has your partner telling you to shut-up because you are laughing out loud. The type that gives you a smile on your face and, like any good page turner, you can't wait to know what happens next. Well that is ‘The Friendly Bob’ Martin Salways first novel.

Often writing in the manner of everyday speech it works quite brilliantly! Giving a depth to the characters that allows you to understand their thoughts and emotions perfectly. From beginning to end, Martin Salway has you empathising with all his main characters. He moves the story along crisply, and you soon find yourself willing these basic losers to become winners against all the odds.

The story centres around two married men with young families, Chris Finch and Vinny Swift, who have been friends from childhood and are still living in Slough, a town west of London in the M4 corridor that has perhaps seen better days. Chris is a hardworking, moderately successful car mechanic with his own business ably run by his childhood sweetheart, wife Christine. Vinny, married to wonderfully tolerant Jules, on the other hand is not much good at anything other than getting into trouble, and driving cars. He has a long, chequered and often comic career of brushes with the law dating back to his early teenage days. Despite being complete opposites Chris and Vinny share a love of 'Banger' racing. However Chris' life is shattered when his wife suddenly up sticks and bewilderingly moves in with a man Chris and most of his mates have despised since their school days. After the usual round of feeling sorry for himself and plummeting to lowly depths of despair with drink and Prozac, culminating in a drunken night on the front lawn, destroying the front porch and feeding the dog with laxative chocolate, the two of them, attracted by the prize money, decide to enter their beloved car, 'The Friendly Bomb' into a banger race in Belfast. Unbeknown to them of course it is run by the local Loyalist paramilitary group with its own completely different agenda. And taking a car to Northern Ireland with the name 'Bomb' stuck on the side is perhaps not the wisest move on the planet!

As with all good tales 'The Friendly Bob' is rich with secondary characters such as the marvellously named TCP, an elderly hard man, with a heart of gold who still strikes fear into all those who cross him; Bob Strong, the boys disgustingly mannered ’sponsor’ and expert on Big Macs; Captain, Bob's Tai step-son and side-kick, a legacy from a brief marriage long since over; Julio, the gay ex-jockey, desperate to get away from the night club owner; Alistair McCracken his psychopathic, cocaine snorting boyfriend and make amends for his involvement in the kidnapping of a famous racehorse some year previous; a host of Irish gangsters; and of course the beautiful and beguiling Russian girl, Anastasia.

If you want to curl up, in more ways than one, with a good side splitting story then Martin Salway's 'The Friendly Bomb' is more than recommended.

Martin Salway is donating 25% of his net profits from all sales of this publication to Cancer research UK.

Richard Fitt.
Editor Authors on line.

A great read! by Evelyn Willment Wow! Martin Salway's first novel is written with a seductive pace that won't let you put it down! Full of bittersweet humour produced with tongue firmly in cheek. If you want a good book easy to read and fun this one is definitely for you. The added bonus is that 25% of all net profit from sales go to Cancer research UK so click now and start buying!

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