The Whisper

Rai’s new novel revisits the inner-city territory and characters of his earlier novel, The Crew. It is an unforgiving landscape, in which survival is only perilously secured through gang membership.

Eight months have passed since Billy’s small gang – the Crew of the title – have fallen foul of local drug boss, Busta, after his taking hostage of one of their members, Ellie, has led to Busta’s arrest. Both Billy and his step-dad, Nanny, who was indirectly responsible for the arrest, are now in Busta’s sights – not a comfortable place to be. Prison is no barrier to someone as keenly placed as Busta, with friends on the outside. Local loyalties take precedence over any respect for the authorities and, when the police swoop on a number of key drug dealers in Operation Street Clean, feeling runs high. Soon Billy’s family is the victim of a number of attacks, followed by a graffiti and poster campaign to brand them as police informers: ‘the whisper’ has begun.

To make matters worse, friend and fellow gang member, Jas, has been acting strangely: he’s made contact with his estranged cousins, the extended family he’s been longing for. This should be a rare piece of good news, but then the Crew learn that the cousins are involved in the murky world of dealing too. And before long Jas is in thrall to another kind of whisper, the tormenting voice in his head urging him to satisfy his drug-cravings.

Rai is fast building a cult readership for his hard-hitting books aimed principally at young adults, which reflect both the desperation and energy of life on inner-city British estates. The Whisper is an intricately-plotted drama which sweeps its characters up into an unremitting spiral of events, which will end in a key character’s death. Rai builds his story with consummate control, ratcheting up the tension with carefully placed ‘leaks’ of information, punctuated by short chapters of mysterious mobile-phone dialogue between Busta and his henchman, Divy. His empathetic portrayal of his multi-cultural cast of characters is underpinned by a sure grasp of street-language and mores, but his greatest strength is his understanding of the constraints which govern the lives of his young characters. The Crew strive to find a meaning which does not reside in the overpowering lure of the alternative economy of crime or dealing; Rai shows just how difficult an enterprise this is. The Whisper also offers a cast of adult characters, including the hugely sympathetic Nanny, variously succumbing to or resisting urban pressures. An angry compassion – and, at times, grief – underlies the hip surface.