THE SCORE

Drug dealer extraordinaire Howard Marks is often referred to as Mr. Nice.  In this book, it doesn’t show much, full as the story is with drugs, murder and general bitchiness. While I admire Marks’ attempt to show that the pen is mightier than the syringe, this book does not make a lot of new points.

Our heroine Catrin Price is a recovering addict to a substance that is not made very clear. That is a nice touch in that her every move and emotion is coloured by her obvious undergoing the DTs.  It kind of puts a fog around the developments that feels very real and immediate.

It is the events themselves that are less interesting. Much of the action takes place in Wales and for this reader, unfamiliar with the area, there was just a lot of running around from one place to another that masked any real sense of place.

The plot was a far-fetched serial killer yarn, nothing wrong with that in principle but today a stand-out serial killer has to stand out. This one does not, sadly, nor are his/her motives that interesting. Much is made of instant fame and young girls yearning to become the new Leona Lewis or Susan Boyle. Again, I found this underdeveloped element of the plot could have been so much more compelling. Instead it appears little more than a plot device to lure impressionable young women to fates substantially worse than a snarky grilling from Simon Cowell.