Title: Volta
Author: Nikki Dudley
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 300
Rating: 4/5
The first thing I should say is that I know Nikki, at least as an acquaintance. We went to the same university and have bumped into each other at a couple of events, and I’ve also had some of my poetry published in the magazine that she co-founded, Streetcake. In fact, there’s a quote from her on the back of my poetry collection.
I was supposed to be picking this one up a couple of months back when it was first published as part of the blog tour. With it being a small world and all of that, the tour was being managed by Isabelle Kenyon of Fly on the Wall poetry press, who occasionally sends me books to read. She could have sent me a copy of Volta, but I wanted to buy a copy myself to show Nikki some support.
And so here’s my review, better late than never. The first thing to say is that the genre it’s in, which is a sort of hybrid between crime and contemporary thriller, is a pretty popular one, and so it’s by no means the first book that I’ve read of this ilk, although it does have a relatively unique plot. What’s interesting to me is the way that Nikki dealt with it.
That’s because it’s the characters that shine here, although that’s not to say that the plot isn’t fun. In particular, I enjoyed a lot of the dialogue, mainly because there was plenty of banter that helped to bring the characters to life. It was surprisingly witty for a crime novel, with a deep, dark undercurrent of humour. And a pretty good story to boot, so there’s lots to like.
