Ever had noisy neighbours? I don’t mean the kind that have the occasional flaming row, the kids who scream sometimes or a party once a year. I mean really noisy neighbours. The kind who blast music at all hours of the night and day, the kind who invade your space constantly with their noise. As a kid a family moved into the flat below us and proceeded to subject the entire block to dub reggae at full bone-crunching volume for days on end. Complaints were brushed aside, they were going to enjoy their music and that’s all that mattered. In the end it drove my mum to a valium addiction which lasted for years, and which meant, finally that the council moved us to a different estate because it was easier than getting the noise turned down.

The characters in Noise Abatement don’t have a council to re-house them. When they’re faced with noisy neighbours they quickly discover the life-shattering reality of living in a speaker cabinet. It’s not fun, no matter how much you like music. And, faced with the barrage they resort to their own means of achieving silence.

Unlike much crime/suspense fiction, this is a novel that’s firmly rooted in reality. There’s nothing glamorous or unusual about the protagonists, just small-time folk who want to get on with their lives. That they are propelled into increasingly extreme acts is a result of circumstances and not anything else. Carol Anne Davis writes with an ability to really get to grips with her characters. The story is well-researched, there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s lived with noisy neighbours herself.

The results are tragic, to say the least. The end is predictable but gripping, you keep hoping against hope that things don’t turn out the way they will.

Recommended.