JOHNNY Briggs is a Shotton Colliery lad with a lurid past, a depressing present and a bleak future.

But he believes things have definitely changed for the better when he has a chance to run his own coal delivery business, only for everything to go nutty slack.

He has to go on the run from a murderous gangster and a psychopath, while his family also come in for some heavy aggro. This is a cracker of a read, with a cracking storyline. You’d be crackers to miss it. (Contact Barny Books on 0115- 9375147 or email barnybooks@hotmail.

co.uk).