WELCOME TO THE GAME

A down-on-his-luck Englishman who drives expensive cars really fast hooks up with a ruthless Detroit mobster and his violent crew.

The Brit is one-time rally driver Spencer Burnham, whose fortunes and mental state have been sliding since his wife, a Detroit native, died in a car accident following their move back to the U.S. His foreign car dealership faces foreclosure, and child protective services threatens to take his 11-year-old daughter, whom he raises with his late wife's uncle. After passing what proves to be a driving audition for the mobster, McGrath, who is impressed by Spencer's ability to move fast "without getting noticed," he lands both a high-paying job and a source of relief. Having grown weary of competitive driving, he reclaims his relationship with speed: "There wasn't winning or losing. There was just moving." But once people around him start getting hurt or killed, he tries to extricate himself from the gig. Standing in his way are McGrath, whose fondness for him would not preempt his murder; McGrath's right-hand man, Johnny Boy, a former Chicago mob lawyer; and the Yo-Yo, a bulky ex-con whose specialty is punching someone in the head "hard enough to fracture but not kill." The action rarely stops. When it does, it's for Spencer to deal with CPS case workers—first Lonnie, his bedmate from their second meeting, and then Caitlyn, a harder case who softens for him. Henderson is better at situational descriptions than advancing the plot—endgames are vague. But the first-time novelist brings a fresh, hardscrabble voice to Elmore Leonard land, albeit with more sentimentality.

A corrosive debut that makes you look forward to a sequel.