Spiraling

Most Wanted by Andi Osho is a powerful contemporary novel that gripped me from the start.

As the novel opens we ‘hear’ the voice of the perpetrator of the crimes. We know they have been caught – but who are they? And what are their crimes?

The setting is an urban one, in several boroughs in London. We ‘see’ the troubled youths just hanging about. We drop in on community-minded neighbours. And we witness the side effects of gentrification on neighbourhoods – in particular pushing up housing prices. Demand is outstripping supply. Houses are being snapped up. Prices are rocketing. All this is pushing local people out of area. How will it ever stop?

A young couple who has been renting, and are desperate to get on the property ladder. They are the focus of the novel. The reader can empathise with their plight and their frustration in losing property after property. Add to that, a fluid job situation creating tension, and you have the perfect storm.

The reader watches the couple becoming ever more desperate. Their actions catch the eye of local criminals. Without knowing quite how they got there, lives start spiraling downwards, and there seems to be no way out.