Prisons are big business.

Gina's passion is art, but her paintings, though good, rarely sell and the future looks bleak. Out of money she doesn't know how she'll raise the rent due in a couple of weeks. Then a chance encounter on the beach with a suave, handsome man not only secured a sale of her most expensive art work but also a party invitation where she might meet prospective buyers. Instead, she finds herself involved in an uncomfortable romance and the shadier side of the drugs world.

Although this is an unusual and exciting story, replete with interesting factual information, for this reader it was somewhat marred by the unbelievably naive lead character, Gina, (had she never heard of taking a paying job whilst waiting to be discovered as an artist: the one does not preclude the other?) and the constant use by the author of the word blow, instead of coke or cocaine or even any other possible slang alternatives, as if trying, too hard, to establish street credibility. The protagonists were, almost without exception, well drawn, however, and the frustrations of the undercover cop who knows all of the necessary facts but has no hard evidence to back them sufficient to force an arrest or even secure the very information to obtain it, is palpable.
Narrator, Rich Miller gives an excellent performance: well paced with good intonation, his rich, fairly deep voice also differentiated the assorted speakers in their conversations, not attempting realistic female voices but indicating them with slightly lighter tone. Listening to his reading was one of the pleasures of the book.

My thanks to the rights holder of Busted who, at my request, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy, via Audiobook Boom. This book is, in it's own way, a cry for change in the system without being preachy. It tells a story, offers some relevant facts, and leaves the audience to make up their own minds - or not bother to go beyond the simple thriller itself. Lots of action, well fleshed out characters combined with bad choices, indicision and, sometimes, of fear. Despite my small reservations about the way in which this book was written, still worth reading.

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