Ali Karim was a Board Member of Bouchercon [The World Crime & Mystery Convention] and co-chaired programming for Bouchercon Raleigh, North Carolina in 2015. He is Assistant Editor of Shots eZine, British correspondent for The Rap Sheet and writes and reviews for many US magazines & Ezines.
They say “write what you know”, and in the case of Imran Mahmood’s debut novel, the weight of over thirty years in the legal industry is clearly on display. This 2017 debut novel has been reissued as a paperback, to tie-in with the BBC miniseries, allowing those who missed its initial release to be dazzled.
They also say “write something different, something fresh and unusual”, and Mahmood followed that advice too, because You Don’t Know Me is just that – a very different crime novel; one that takes the conventions of a courtroom drama, transforming that narrative form into a compulsive thriller.
It’s an intricate novel with many moving parts which become revealed as the unnamed defendant tells his tale to the court. After sacking his brief, the tale unravels. Gang culture, inner-city social commentary and the darkest edges of a dangerous society are the themes, as the young man takes the stand.
It’s not cliché to say “it’s best to start this novel without knowing too much” – but many will come to this paperback after viewing the 4-part BBC adaptation. Even so, it will still astonish the reader, as the writer takes your hand and you take your seat in the courtroom. Written in a style of broken monologues, street dialogues, it hypnotises the reader as the series of vignettes [aka evidence] against the nameless defendant are revealed.
Reliable narrator or unreliable narrator? That is the question.
Even if you’ve viewed the BBC adaptation, the source material is far more compelling and unsettling.
Miss this book at your peril, “innit”.
