Review:
SATURDAY’S CHILD by Ray Banks
Review by Sandra Ruttan
Cal Innes hasn’t had time to adjust to life outside prison when he’s confronted by a job for a notorious gang lord who won’t take no for an answer. What the gang lord says he’s after and what he’s really looking for are two different things and the gang lord’s son – the person responsible for Cal being sent to prison - has a personal stake in the situation, and Cal has no idea just how ugly things are about to get.
Any review of SATURDAY’S CHILD would be incomplete without mentioning the original voice of Ray Banks. His style is so assured that when he changes narrators you know whose perspective you’re following without introduction or cues. He allows the dialogue, the diction and the actions to define the characters in a way that few authors are capable of.
Banks also utilizes internal variables to drive the story. Although SATURDAY’S CHILD has plenty of action the events are propelled by the way the characters think. Cal’s biggest enemy may be himself, too naïve to realize there’s far more to gangster Tiernan’s “job” than meets the eye. With a cop hot on his tail, ready to send him back to prison at the drop of a hat, Cal is hemmed in, with no one to turn to, and when his life is threatened he’ll find out just how far he’s willing to go to get revenge and bring this case to closure.
Gritty language that evokes a sense of place all on its own, SATURDAY’S CHILD will slam you through the back alleys and seedy bars at a furious pace as Cal Innes confronts the darkness within himself, as well as the dangers he doesn’t know wait around the next bend. Hardboiled crime fiction of the highest caliber.