Box

Clive and Stanley are two thirty-something no-hopers, who drift from one useless moneymaking scheme to another. Patricia is a lonely middle-aged woman who spends her days caring for her elderly and abusive mother, and Pow-Wow, a sixteen year old gangster in the making. When Clive meets Patricia through an escort agency set up by him and Stanley, and Pow-Wow gets framed for the murder of Patricia's mother, everything comes together.The second half of the book deals with the consequences of the murder, and its implications for the characters. The novel is concerned as much with the ever-evolving relationships between the characters, as it is with the crime itself. It's often funny and sometimes touching, but without ever resorting to sentimentality.Vividly written in spare prose, this is a hard-hitting novel and a great read.