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Blag, Tony Saint
Serpent's Tail
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Blag is set in the cultural melting pot of London. But things aren't melting together too well. Plenty of people want in, but plenty more want them back out again.

The two main characters know first-hand the absurdities of the revolving-door immigration system. Sean Carlyle is an immigration official whose job it is to rid London of illegal immigrants. Harry Verma preys on immigrants in another way. All illegal immigrants need a good lawyer and he's just the type of desperate, low-rent, unscrupulous semi-professional they don't need.

Unfortunately for them, they don't know this.

The plot to this comic thriller is pretty standard. Harry is a gambling addict who is hopelessly in debt to Bohra, the local Indian gangster. To pay back his debt, Bohra contracts him to hunt down a young girl who has fled the oppression of her Indian family. This girl just happens to be hiding out in Sean's flat.

Sean has his own problems. Not only is he an immigration official harbouring an illegal immigrant, but he's had a rather bad run of luck involving his late wife and an angry African mob. The tragic past is always a good one to pull out in a thriller.

Eventually the plot strands entwine. Sean and Harry finally come together on the same side and sort out a plan to battle Bohra and his goons.

Blag is a satirical account of a major world city struggling to cope with globalisation. The bureaucracy is hopelessly outdated, the natives don't like the immigrants, and even the immigrants don't like the other immigrants. Immigration control is faced with a multitude of people with no passports claiming they fear for their lives and are from Afghanistan, even if they do look suspiciously African.

Despite the thriller by numbers plot, the setting is interesting and relevant, especially with the immigration debate heating up in this country.