Introducing Chantelle Atkins
Where did the idea for the story come from?
I have a 5 book series, The Boy With The Thorn In His Side which follows a boys musical journey from the age of 13 into adulthood during the 90s and early 2000s.
It’s a gritty, sometimes brutal story, as he finds himself swallowed up by the dark criminal world of his stepfather who owns nightclubs and deals drugs.
In book 4, I introduced two characters, brothers, called Tom and Alfie Lane. They find themselves mixed up in this criminal underworld and Danny, the main character from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side ends up helping them escape.
I loved their characters so much I wanted to give them their own story so I started to imagine what life events had led them to that point. For example, in the series, we first meet Tom Lane at aged 16 tied to a chair in a nightclub about to be tortured by thugs. I wanted to figure out what got him to that point so I wrote them their own story starting in their childhood.
Give a quote from the books, one that says little but speaks volumes.
The first time Alfie Lane had to think fast to save his brother’s life, he was five years old. That moment haunted his childhood, yet, in the years that followed, Alfie somehow found a way to bury the terrible memory. In fact, he has not thought of it since he was a kid, and, as it comes to him now, this fact alone seems somehow more strange, frightening, and catastrophic than the gun being held to his brother’s head. How could he have forgotten?
Even now, does Tom look scared? Guilty? Sorry? Alfie doesn’t think so. What he can see in his brother’s face is what has always been there – a kind of wild hunger, one that is almost impossible to satisfy. Alfie recognises the look and understands it. Tom has always been hungry because Tom has been starved his entire life. Starved of a mother, starved of his father’s love, starved of security and stability and in recent years, starved of the one constant in his life – Alfie.
Give a short summary of what the book is about.
It’s about two brothers born into a criminal family. Alfie is four when his brother Tom is born and their mother dies during childbirth. Their father never gets over this and never forgives Tom.
Alfie from a very young age assumes responsibility for Tom and constantly feels that Tom is in danger from their father and his criminal activities. But as they grow older, Tom tries hard to impress their father and subsequently pushes Alfie away.
Eventually they go their separate ways until one day three thugs bring Tom to Alfie’s door with a gun held to his head. Alfie must think fast to save his brother one more time.
It’s about dysfunctional families and the effect this has on people growing up.
It’s about the co-dependent and complicated relationships that evolve between siblings in difficult environments and its about forgiveness.
What genre is it?
Crime drama but also literary fiction.
How many pages is it?
476
Why do you think the readers will want to read it?
Because its an exciting crime drama at its heart but also an exploration of complex brotherly love and forgiveness. It is character led and forms part of a bigger universe of connected books and characters.
Where are you located?
Christchurch, Dorset, UK
Description
When Tom Lane was born, he accidentally killed his mother and in the process, his father’s love.
Determined to protect Tom from their father’s criminal business, older brother Alfie must become Tom’s father, mother and protector. It’s the two of them against the world until the day Tom chooses a life of crime over Alfie’s dream of a normal life.
Ten years later the estranged brothers are reunited when a violent gang bring Tom to Alfie’s door with a gun to his head.
Tom’s partners in crime have turned on him and he needs his brother to save him one more time…
A darkly brooding story of brotherly love, belonging and the beginnings that shape who we become.
Excerpt
The gun to his head should mean more to Tom Lane, but he has always been an optimist; in many ways he feels invincible. The look on his brother’s face means more to him than the immediate threat to his own life. Any second now, he is going to let out an enormous tic, but he doesn’t think it will result in a bullet to the brain. If he’s dead, they’ll have far less chance of getting what they came for. He still thinks this thing can be resolved without bloodshed. He must cling to that because letting Alfie down is the worst pain he can imagine, and he has already let him down too many times before.
I read and enjoyed this book. It is everything the author describes. This is my review.
World of Stories 