Running Hot

‘What’s the best thing about Hackney? The bus outta here!’ And that’s exactly where Elijah ‘Schoolboy’ Campbell needs to be in a week’s time, heading out of London’s underworld. He’s taking a great offer to leave it all behind and start a new life, but the problem is he’s got no spare cash. The possibility of lining his pockets becomes real when he stumbles across a mobile phone. But it’s marked property, and the Street won’t care that he found it by accident. The Street won’t care that the phone’s his last chance to change his life. And he can’t give it back because the door to redemption is only open for 7 days. 7 days to exchange the mobile for cash. 7 days to cut the mobile’s line rental to the Faces tracking his every move. 7 days to get out of a world where bling, ringtones and petty deaths are accessories of life. Schoolboy knows that when you’re running hot all it takes is one call, one voicemail, one text to disconnect you from this life - permanently. And getting deeper into his old lifestyle may mean that he never catches that bus …Dreda Say Mitchell perfectly captures the tough and brittle mood of inner London in this stark, moving and funny account of a largely hidden world.

A highly original new novel and a striking debut from a writer of verve and distinction.