The Rent Man

If you like your crime very noir, very hard-boiled and very Swansea Jack - this is the novel for you. The Rent Man is riven with deliciously black humour and the almost touchable caustic atmosphere of decaying urban Wales. Swansea is just one British port in the grip of the ruthless Rent Man Gang. Police and Customs are baffled by the fear and secrecy which surrounds their international drugs and male prostitution racket. Charlie Llewellyn is a local sculptor with a shaky Cashflow, a taste for the beer and a divorce battle with the Bitch from Hell. But who are the men behind this brutal gang and why has Charlie really moved back to Swansea? When a young male prostitute is murdered and Charlie commits suicide, the scene is set for one of the most original and gripping thrillers in years.Mike Adlam’s ability to create rounded characters makes his book, despite its dark subject matter, a breath of fresh air. He may portray Swansea as a crime-ridden hellhole that makes the Baltimore of the The Wire look like a day trip to Alton Towers, but his determination to look the seamy reality full in the face is refreshing because so rare. Through his use of vernacular and shifting voices, he stays close enough to his characters to get into their heads, but far enough away to show their self-delusion. There is indeed humour here, and characters to return to, but really The Rent Man is about thrills. And as the novel barrels triumphantly towards its unexpected but satisfying conclusion, it’s in this respect that it delivers.At times hilarious, at times terrifying, The Rent Man draws us through the trials and tribulations of everyday life into the dark, psychotic underworld of the brutal Rent Man Gang.