Peekaboo Bosh
John King, London Books, £14 
 

THE animal rights movement has been all-but ignored in fiction, but here John King puts it front and centre in a cleverly entertaining novella. 

With echoes from one of his previous books, White Trash, Pekaboo Bosh contrasts dull corporate callousness with the raw, colourful emotions of everyday people who view the world as it should be seen – and who are prepared to act to bring about change.

Following the adventures of a small group of activists intent on rescuing the inmates of a vivisectionist laboratory, it also gives us an insight into the world of their foes, chiefly in the shape of the smug, self-important Simon Spinks, star of the show at the lab and a man who harbours some dark secrets.

We also hear voices from within the orbit of the police – connected, it seems, to a surprise twist in the story’s tail.

There’s a lot in here – excitement during the tense break-in scenes; elements of humour when the confused security guards try to work out what’s happening; drama as we see the ramifications of the raid for Spinks, and a satisfying plot development at the end, all written with the author’s customary inventive intricacy.

A worthy companion to King’s other novel in a similar domain, Slaughterhouse Prayer, and with a bonus short story wrapped up into the package – Roadblock 2am, in which a young traveller faces a life or death situation on a journey to Guatemala City – Peekaboo Bosh moves contemporary storytelling in a direction few others have dared to take it.