Luke’s life in North Carolina sucks until things start to look up when he sets off for a writing program in London, spending the month before his course exploring Europe. But his dream trip quickly derails in Paris after he discovers a body at a party and is blackmailed into hiding the evidence.

Arriving in London, Luke decides that crafting the perfect novel will help him overcome the Paris catastrophe. He befriends Shane, a gang leader, and shadows a band of criminals as research for his manuscript. Luke finds a family with the young gang, but this new world is filled with violence and toxic masculinity, which strains his academic career, eventually entangling him in the London underworld as he embarks on a slew of crimes, making dangerous enemies along the way.

When friends start dying and detectives begin calling, Luke is forced back to France, realizing that he’s not the hero of his own story. Searching for an ending that could free his friends from Shane, Luke wants to bring justice to the murder that happened … by way of Paris.

By Way of Paris is the first published novel by Christopher J Newman from North Carolina. After writing stories for many years he travelled to England where he completed a master’s degree in creative writing at Bath Spa University. His trip inspired him to write By Way of Paris which became his dissertation.

The book is written in the first person, narrated by Luke who is in many ways the alter ego of Newman, in that he too is from North Carolina and studying creative writing in the UK. The big difference, I hope, is that the true author does not have the criminal or violent tendencies of his protagonist.

The action is violent as would be expected in a gangland novel but beyond this we have some deep backstories of the gang members and their associates. Sadly, their situations are generally bleak; being drawn into crime for lack of a practical alternative. The character of Luke is complicated and as the story progresses we are given a better understanding of the causes.

As an American setting a book in the UK, Christopher Newman does very well in describing London and its people, no doubt due to his experience of living here.

I enjoyed this book considerably but I have to say that I found the opening chapters somewhat frustrating. The Americans found themselves in a bad position but in order to evade the law they just dug themselves further in. The denouement was lively with a number of fascinating revelations to bring everything together.

By Way of Paris is a gutsy gangland story written from a different viewpoint with real insight into the lives of some of the people trapped in that crime. I have awarded five stars.

Christopher earned a BA in communication from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University in the United Kingdom. He has been a part-time professor and has worked as a freelance filmmaker for many years, serving a variety of industries.

He currently resides in his hometown, Raleigh, North Carolina.