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2006 - Thanks for the Vodka
“Crimes are rated. People committing benefit fraud are idle heroes. Sex with underage girls? Well around here the little tarts ask for it, don’t they? But grassing to the police, that’s a tar and feathering offense. At least where I live.”
Imagine a pub. It’s not a pretty pub, but it’s full of character and is intimidating. People who’ve worked in pleasant wine bars will say, “I totally get where you’re coming from. I’ve worked as a barmaid myself.” Not in this pub, they haven’t.
There’s a mix of locals whose families have lived in the area for generations. It’s their manor and if you’ve only lived there for twenty years you’re still an ‘off-comer’. Oddballs, weirdoes, head cases, prima donnas, musicians, karaoke singers, tarts ‘all no coat— can’t afford one—and no knickers’ and the mentally unstable. A stranger is eyed with suspicion. When you leave, you’ll be followed, to be sure you’re not ‘undercover’.
A grass is a grass is a knife in an alley. Harpie works in this pub and through doing the right thing, for the right reasons, makes enemies, some are her own family.
Her house is uninhabitable. She has no money for a deposit on a new place, is forced to work part-time in a sex shop, and her 14-year-old son is going off the rails fast. Harpie doesn’t care about his schoolwork anymore. She just wants to keep him out of prison. The only option may be to let the Gypsies sort him out, and he’s more scared of them than he is of the police.
“Is life meant to be this hard? Other people’s lives don’t seem to be”
Another gripping page-turner in true harpie-esque style with the usual brand of humour and trauma… and humour and trauma.
Imagine a pub. It’s not a pretty pub, but it’s full of character and is intimidating. People who’ve worked in pleasant wine bars will say, “I totally get where you’re coming from. I’ve worked as a barmaid myself.” Not in this pub, they haven’t.
There’s a mix of locals whose families have lived in the area for generations. It’s their manor and if you’ve only lived there for twenty years you’re still an ‘off-comer’. Oddballs, weirdoes, head cases, prima donnas, musicians, karaoke singers, tarts ‘all no coat— can’t afford one—and no knickers’ and the mentally unstable. A stranger is eyed with suspicion. When you leave, you’ll be followed, to be sure you’re not ‘undercover’.
A grass is a grass is a knife in an alley. Harpie works in this pub and through doing the right thing, for the right reasons, makes enemies, some are her own family.
Her house is uninhabitable. She has no money for a deposit on a new place, is forced to work part-time in a sex shop, and her 14-year-old son is going off the rails fast. Harpie doesn’t care about his schoolwork anymore. She just wants to keep him out of prison. The only option may be to let the Gypsies sort him out, and he’s more scared of them than he is of the police.
“Is life meant to be this hard? Other people’s lives don’t seem to be”
Another gripping page-turner in true harpie-esque style with the usual brand of humour and trauma… and humour and trauma.
603 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 11, 2016
244 people want to read
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August 6, 2017
Loved this continuing saga of Harpie. I hope this is not her last book, as things do look as if they might be improving, and I want to know what happens next - grr!
Displaying 1 of 1 review