My name is not Jacob Ramsay

From policing gangland Greenwich to spying on a worldwide scale and with the worldwide migrant issue and radicalisation within schools, this is an incredibly relevant debut novel, which is an intelligent, highly informative and educational, espionage thriller. The 'whodunnit' and 'why-dunnit' were simple enough. The 'how-dunnit' will leave you believing that this could actually happen.

Sinatra Umbundo was very young when he left his home of Angola. He had seen the earth beneath his feet soaked in blood and had been left mentally scarred by the amount of death and mutilations he had witnessed before coming to stay in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, south-east London.

Michael Thompson was a 35 year-old counsellor in a secondary school exclusion unit, in Greenwich. He was part of a small, loyal team of teachers who each assessed a wide variety of students, ranging from gang members, migrants from war-torn countries and Special Needs children with extreme behaviour disorders. Michael lived with his girlfriend, Rebecca, in south-west London. His father, Edward, was an ex-operative for the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 who lived with Michael's mother. When Michael informed his father of the types of students he had in his various classes at the school, he was advised to speak with a neighbour, a police detective.

During that time, uprisings raged across the Middle East and it angered many rebellious splinter groups, especially in Iran. Under the watchful eye of his father, Michael met with undercover detectives. They headed a specialist gang unit in the area where he worked and were extremely interested in the client group Michael dealt with at his school. They wanted to take him on as a registered undercover informant.

Michael regularly met the detectives after his days at work. He informed them of dangerous pupils involved in burglary, drugs, gangs, knife and gun crime and he received handsome payment for doing so. He was shown mug shots and CCTV image captures of young people caught in the act. Michael identified many and when charged or convicted, he received a bigger payout. Despite spying on his students, he was pleased to be removing criminals from the streets and the undercover officers were too. They soon request he join them on a night job, however Michael's girlfriend Rebecca was reluctant for him to do so. It was when he was with detectives, he was recognised by one of his pupils, an Angolan called Sinatra. Angered by Michael's betrayal, the boy decided to teach him a lesson, leading to the most dangerous and utterly traumatic of results. Rebecca was distraught that Michael hadn't returned home one day and called Edward, his father. His MI6 experience kicked into action, driving him to track down his son, whatever and wherever it took him, using skills he never thought he would have to use again.

'My name is not Jacob Ramsay' is not only an insight into the UK educational system, but also a snapshot of the various backgrounds and journeys of migrants who arrive in the United Kingdom. This book should appeal to the right, left and even the liberal amongst us.

Dettagli