Disordered Daggers : You Don't Know Me by Imran Mahmood (2017)

[gervase_fen]

An impressive debut and a credible piece of extended literary ventriloquism.  Our first person narrator is in the dock of the Old Bailey on trial for shooting a drug dealer. The novel is presented as a transcript (“T J Nazarene Limited, Official Court Reporters and Tape Transcribers”) of the closing speech, made by the defendant.  This speech will take place over nearly two weeks, and set out an alternative explanation of the damning evidence (fibre, gunshot residue, the gun itself).  The argot, milieu, and life experiences recounted are totally convincing. Imran Mahmood’s powerful afterword (the author is a practising barrister) makes a plea for more understanding and empathy.  However, the novel stumbles slightly in the last lap, as plot twists away from the social realism of “Kidulthood” towards something a bit more Hollywood. In the end I had less problems with the credibility of a sustained, articulate defence speech that takes two weeks to deliver than I did with how that defence culminates.