Hope Road

Hope Road (LS9 #1)

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3.55 of 5 stars 3.55  ·  rating details  ·  107 ratings  ·  22 reviews
You can't change your past. But what about your future?

John Ray, son of crime boss Antonio 'Tony' Ray, is the straight one of the family. With a successful business and a lifestyle to match, he wants nothing to do with his father's criminal world. But what does that world want with him?

A young prostitute is found dead in John's car, and Freddy Metcalfe, his best friend an...more
Kindle Edition, 288 pages
Published December 13th 2011
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A.C. Flory
I read somewhere recently that it takes about six or seven exposures to an author's name for that name to register with readers. Well, I'm living proof that theory is correct!

John Barlow, the author of Hope Road, writes the odd post for Indies Unlimited, and I must have enjoyed those posts, because when I stumbled across his name in the Amazon 'readers who bought X also bought Y' list, a little light bulb went off in my head.

Needless to say I bought Hope Road, and read it. What the theory did no...more
Kathleen
John Ray never wanted anything to do with his father's criminal activity, and education was his ticket out of that lifestyle. After graduating from Cambridge and going abroad to Spain, John worked as a corporate accountant for two firms in London and Manchester for fifteen years. Two years ago, all that changed when his older brother Joe was gunned down in a gangland murder, and he found himself back in the Yorkshire town of Leeds, bound and determined to turn the family secondhand automobile de...more
TC
Jul 04, 2012 TC rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: crime
John Ray has spent years trying to escape the connotations of his family name. He's known in Leeds as the son of Tony Ray, notorious crime boss. After almost making a clean break he comes back to take on his Dad's garage, and make it legit. He even has a police officer girlfriend completing the veneer of respectability. That is until a dead girl is found in the boot of a vehicle that traces back to the garage. His employee and friend Freddy looks set to be charged with the murder, and initially...more
Randy Cashner
Hope Road is John Barlow's first novel in a new crime series set in England. John Ray is the protagonist who is trying to escape his past but that transition will not be easy. Hope Road is not a police procedural novel but, rather, it is more of a criminal procedural novel. Barlow has methodically detailed how a criminal network functions and has outlined the type of mentality that is necessary for a criminal network to function.. The character of John Ray is equally complicated At times, the re...more
Matt Schiariti
John Ray: prodigal son of the infamous Tony Ray crime family. He’d always wanted to be cut from a different cloth. He was the one they were most proud of. The straight shooter, the legitimate one. Top honors in school, university degree. He’d left home for over two decades, looking to wipe the grime of the family name off of himself. To take things one step further, he turned his father’s high end used car business into a completely legit and successful operation. John Ray thought he’d separated...more
Randy
John Barlow has accomplished something with me. Reviews I've read in other places say the same thing. I don't normally favor books in the present tense. But since I do like British crime novels, I decided to give it a try.

I was son lost in the world of John Ray, son of crime boss Tony Ray, and the, I guess you would call him the white sheep of the family. He'd been through college, brilliantly, and had an accountant's degree.

He had come home after his brother was murdered and his father had had...more
Charlotte English
I don't usually enjoy books written in the present tense, but in the interests of being open-minded I gave this one a try. What comes across as pretentious in some books actually worked well here. It gave the story an interesting feeling of immediacy.

John Ray is a great hero. He's rather charming without being sleazy, he's popular and confident but without being obnoxiously arrogant. His background is interesting: how do you get away from the stigma of being part of a notorious crime family? I...more
Beth Kemp
A lot of the energy of this novel comes from its present tense narrative, which works well at bringing immediacy to the story. It's told in the third person, largely from John's viewpoint. John is a great character: tough and streetwise because of his criminal heritage, but trying desperately to be a good guy and run a legitimate business. It's not hard to sympathise with him as he runs around trying to find out what really happened and to clear Freddy.

Denise and John's relationship adds a furth...more
Sarah
Hope Road is set in the Yorkshire town of Leeds and follows John Ray – son and brother of notorious criminals. John Ray has always been the good boy of the family, turning away from a life of crime. The author clearly knows Leeds well, and he describes the areas and locations excellently,

The book starts with the murder of a prostitute, and twists and turns until we find out who the girl actually is, and the complicated story of how she came to die. There are a number of different things going on...more
Ellen
This was a Kindle freebie. It's the first in what the author plans will be a nine-book series. The protagonist is a man named John Ray, the son of a successful master counterfeiter in the north of England. His father has had a series of strokes and his brother, who had been a ruthless criminal in his own right, was murdered. John, an accountant who has stayed out of the family business, has returned and fashioned a legitimate business from what had been his father's front and the hub for his cri...more
Jane
I won this e-book in a give-away earlier in the year. The only downside were the typos. It's a shame with e-books particularly, that this is quite a common feature.
I loved the story, good plot and plenty of interest for the reader. Little twists and turns and an ending I did not expect. Set in northern England in Leeds. I don't know a lot about this area but like most cities it would have its gangs and criminal families. I liked John and was vying for him to find out 'whodunnit'. I suppose I lik...more
David Brown
I worked in Leeds for four years so the prospect of a crime thriller set in the city was certainly one that had me interested from the start. John Barlow’s Hope Road focuses on a solitary murder and delves into the criminal underworld in North England where one man finds his past will simply not let go.

The primary character is John Ray, the son of crime boss Antonio “Tony” Ray, who is now in a home and his criminal days are over. John stayedout of the family business while his brother Joe was gu...more
Mirrani
Not written in the usual style I'd read, I wasn't sure if I could keep going at the very beginning, but I was easily pulled in to the crime and mystery behind it. Who did the actual deed? Is the main suspect telling the truth? What's he hiding? We ask these questions all the time in these kinds of novels, but we stop asking them as the book goes on, usually because we've figured out what it is that's going on. When reading this book you will be constantly asking the questions, right to the end....more
Jan Cole
I found this book kind of on the boring side. Guess it's just not my favourite style. The gangster type characters were not that well identified and the story line was a little hard to follow. The book revolved around John trying to clear a friend and co-worker of murder. It just didn't hold my interest.
Lori Cook
More complicated that a normal mystery, but he keeps it clear and compelling. I loved Den, wanted to give her a slap but understood her at the same time. VERY moving scenario she found herself in. And the ending was superb. Great read all round, even if set in a place I'd never heard of.
Ruby Barnes
Really enjoyed this crime thriller. It kept me in its grip
The fifth star was lost for me by problems I had with believing the interaction between two characters (John and Lanny) and the denouement. Both of the lads seemed to fall out of character on the occasions they confronted each other.
Nevertheless, hioghly recommended and I'll definitely be reading more John Barlow.
David Gooch
I was mildly surprised how good this for the price. It had a couple of typing errors but not many and it din't detract from the book.
The story flowed pretty well and while it wasn't to hard to guess who had killed the dead girl it still had plenty of twists and turns even at the end.
Sherry
This was a good easy read & it was a mystery to the end. Really needs a proof reader there are many mistakes in wording that interrupts the flow.
Ben Larson
If you like mysteries, then this is one you might find interesting. I liked the concept, but felt certain aspects of the story could have been better developed. Still, I was entertained.
Judy
For fans of Brit crime/detective novels. I will definitely read more of this series.
Jim Bell
I have a weakness for British crime books, this was a perfect fix for me.
Sally Young


Loved this book, kept me guessing!
Louise Warman
Well crafted thriller which twisted and turned right to the end.
Tracey
May 18, 2013 Tracey marked it as to-read
Shelves: kindle
Jules
May 17, 2013 Jules marked it as to-read
TiaMarie
May 16, 2013 TiaMarie marked it as to-read
Ellinor
May 16, 2013 Ellinor marked it as to-read
Jamison West
May 12, 2013 Jamison West marked it as to-read
Shelves: owned
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Avenida Hope
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John Barlow's prize-winning fiction and non-fiction has been published by HarperCollins/William Morrow, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 4th Estate and various others in the UK, US, Australia, Russia, Italy, Germany, Spain and Poland.

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His current project is the LS9 crime series. Set in the north of England, it follows the life of John Ray, the half-Spanish son of crime boss Antonio 'Tony' Ray. The seri...more
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