Tim Reeves

A writer in residence at HMP Leicester, a graduate of the Creative Writing course at Warwick, and winner of several awards, Tim Reeves has completed his first novel. THE ESCAPE ARTISTS is a gripping, moving, and profoundly thought-provoking novel about incarceration and institutionalisation, and the extent to which any kind of escape - physical, spiritual, metaphysical - can ever be possible.

Set in a Midlands remand prison, HMP Lenton, the novel tells the story of four men of wildly diverse character brought together by an all consuming desire to escape.  At its centre is McQueen, a huge and deeply flawed man whose criminal life seems to have crept up on him and taken over.  His desperation to return to his family blinds him to everything but the elusive concept of freedom until the tragic inevitability of events and the unpredictability of friends and enemies sends the escape plan lurching out of control.  This is taut, lean and compelling story-telling, with superb characterisation and a visceral authenticity.  Tim Reeves manages brilliantly to balance the needs of empathetic narrative with the reality of brutal criminality.  He achieves sympathy without sentimentalism, archetype without stereotype, and compassion without compromise.

All rights available.