Kidnap. 
Kev Saunders kidnapped me with this book, he tied to me to comfy chair and bound in my hand a frothing tankard of sheer creative genius, I drank the whole lot down willingly and with gusto.This book is great, pure and simple! Now read it.
Oliver
Owp Kennedy "The Wordsmith" (UK) Jun 2008
Read it!
Wotcha was a great read, it kept me on the hook from start to finish.
Very rock n' roll, very gritty, very intriguing, in fact very shocking in
places, but witty and clever enough throughout to balance the light and the
shade.
I think Mr Saunders must be my age as i identified with his youthful start
all the way through to his middle aged middle paged, rock star cynicsym.
It could have split into a trilogy at one point, but cleverly weaved itself
from a trident to a spear to strike with thrilling effect.
Good is good so i wont go on or i might disappear up my backside.
J. Finnigan May 2008
Wotcha!
The good, the bad, the mad and the ugly all jockey for position in this masterfully woven thriller, which finds our
hapless hero in a race for life, in more ways than one!
Follow the seam of black comedy all the way from the nostalgic trip through the 70's punk era before 'pc' was invented
(hurrah! )to the stupendous climax, encountering hooker, pervert, vicar,and psycho along the way.
Grab this fabulously deviant, funny and curiously touching novel with both hands and meet the unforgettable cast.Where
are they all now Mr Saunders, and when is the film coming out?
Gillian Porter 1 Mar 2008
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Anyone who loves Ashes to Ashes should read this!
An eighties washed up rock star who will do anything for cash finds himself in the middle of a frantic dash to save the
son he has never met. I love it; from the seedy, coke head hero (who I want to marry), to the nasty, but vulnerable Bart.
Through it all is the glorious, sexy Daisy. The music references are spot on (as they should be), the clothes are cool
and the vibe created of a Punk inspired London has made me very happy, thank you.
Vanessa Rogers, 29 Feb 2008
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Tres Bon (very good)
The first novel by Hertford's "Mr Music" Kev Saunders - musician, promoter and writer among other things -
Wotcha! Is a dark, action-packed and very often hilarious tale of revenge, redemption and religious zealotry.
Just like rock `n' roll, there are liberal helpings of sex, drugs violence and swearing, but at its heart is a group of
highly original and truly memorable characters.
The hero, Rich Smith, is the washed-up, coke-head singer in a once-massive rock band, who is planning to make a comeback;
when his past returns to not so much haunt him as turn his world upside down.
Rich's links to the other protagonists is told in flashback, woven throughout the novel. There's his childhood friend Bart
Raines, a vengeful voyeur who wants to make Rich's life hell; and Bart's sister Daisy, a one-time hooker and mother of a
teenage son Joe, who has never met his father (Rich).
When Joe and his girlfriend Lily are kidnapped by Bart and Daisy's father's religious cult, the trio have to team up to
save them.
It is fascinating to read how these troubled characters overcome their difficulties and use their resources to fight true
evil.
Saunders' minor characters aren't just cardboard cut-outs either: Daisy's friend Roland (whose business takes him to the
depths of debauchery but who can't bring himself to swear) and the vicar Ralph (who gives into rock `n' roll temptations
but maintains his halo) are both hugely likeable.
The cruelty of schoolkids and the excitement of the punk era are brought to life in flashbacks, written with the authority
of a man who has seen it all.
The multiple point-of-view narrative allows the reader to see into every aspect of the characters' lives - much like Bart's
surveillance network.
The pace builds up to warp speed, keeping you gripped until the satisfying conclusion.
My only (very mild) criticism is the occasional use of untranslated French, but since it can be worked out in its context
and it's not vital to the main plot, it's about as problematic as breaking a fingernail would be for a builder.
All in all, Wotcha! is a brilliant read and another highly successful branch on the Kev Saunders Tree of Talent.
Roll on the next novel!
C. Fane, 10 Feb 2008
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Dedicated non reader, until now.
As somebody with little time to sit down and read, once started, I found myself having to make time to
continue what I found to be an enthralling, entertaining and thought provoking read. Like Pavlov's dogs, after the bell
rings, I eagerly await the next meal. Congratulations Kevin an excellent first novel.
Gav (Broxbourne Herts), 20 Jan 2008
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A debut novel that has everything...
That corny but useful little accolade 'unputdownable' could succinctly say it all about Kev Saunders' debut novel 'Wotcha!', but it doesn't really do justice to this gem of a book, because Mr Saunders can write, I mean, he can
genuinely, most definitely WRITE. This is quality stuff, from the opening chapter, with its beautifully vivid but
troubling portrait of a family walk on a bleak coastal landscape (amidst the stench of seaweed and wood rot and those
rusty padlocks you can already smell the sickness of the human psyche), to the final fast-moving chapters that offer an
exhilarating and macabre carnival of rescue, redemption and revenge - it's more than a racy romp through a sticky web
of lies and lives.
The story is excellently crafted, masterfully controlled (even with the electric blue language) and gorgeously and most
lustfully written. There is a slick cinematic feel in its artful episodic weave. Imaginative creations aside, Kev
Saunders seems to write about what he knows, about people and places he knows and has known. The author's voice is
authoritative, his characters' voices authentic. There is lewdness mixed with lyricism, real pathos amidst the
pantomime, narcotics laced with narcissism, vicious humour cavorting with extreme voyeurism. And, it has to be said,
this book is funny.
Our hero, one-time rock star Richard `Winston' Smith is the central character and lynchpin for all other supporting
characters with their narrative perspectives. This somewhat debauched, arrogant but witty, incorrigible but 'lovable
rogue' has (just about) survived the hedonistic and cynical world of late 20th century sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll only
to enter - alas, hedonist and deeper-cynic still - a darker, more twisted and sadistic world, one which is brilliantly
and intricately linked up with the brutal events, liaisons and secrecies of the past. Smith, in a suitably surreal,
corrupt, clumsy yet poetic fashion, acquires a motley crew of characters round him - wild, eccentric, ruthless, loyal,
greedy, kind, callous, vain, scheming, naïve, vulnerable...Bit by bit, grim truths are revealed and it takes a
clever conspiracy employing perverse professional deviancies of one kind to uncover another - and the nature of this
other, though horrific, is handled in an honest, sensitive and perceptive way by Saunders.
While poor Rich Smith is unequivocally our good bloke with a heart - despite his troubled soul and addictive tendencies -
the richer and ruthless Bart Raines, victim-turned-vengeful-voyeur, is possibly one of the most original, disturbing,
repellent yet compelling characters you'll ever encounter in a (post-) post-modern novel. Although not the true villain
of the story, he is, in soul and incarnate, born from a deadly centre of unspeakable corruption, and those roots he
nurtures through his earth-world of employees and enemies and his ether-world of the Internet.
The pace never lets up, although the shifts from one narrative voice to another and the time travel across decades and
generations allow us breadth of vision and breathing spaces. The dialogue in the novel is varied and the author avoids
the danger of over-indulging his foulmouth fest of word-pun, quip, cheeky banter and backchat. Difficult when you know
this writer must have a passion for words, their music and their teasing possibilities. And music echoes in so many
ways throughout the story, nostalgically and mockingly, snatches of a pop-song, the snarling of a punk lyric: chants and
refrains that haunt the hunter and the hunted.
In that laddish and Loaded kind of way, sure, there are chills, thrills and pills in Wotcha!, but this is not the
vague and lifeless anatomy of soft porn that pulp fiction might offer up, this is a palpable, breathing body of
narrative, very much alive and kicking. And it succeeds, beyond entertaining, to `anatomize' personal and violent
histories to find `any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts' (to plagiarise a bit from the Old Bard, himself.) Kev Saunders, like any good dramatist, novelist or screenwriter - knows how to woo the intelligent reader/viewer,
by making the ordinary both extraordinary and poignant and by showing us (without telling us) how you can't escape your
past; hubris with all its excessive entourage is bound to fall; Nemesis will track down the tyrant; the innocent will
suffer; but love, whatever the tragic outcomes, can (perhaps) in the bittersweet end, conquer all.
And finally, I have to add that it's true, I really couldn't put this book down.
Nell Bacon (Saffron Walden, UK), 18 Jan 2008
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How to get bags under your eyes!!
This is the most gripping book I have read in a long time...so much so that I am now suffering from ever more droopy bags
under my eyes as a result of reading 'Wotcha' until 1.30 every morning!! I want to finish the book as soon as
possible, 'cause I want to know what happens but at the same time, I want it to last for ever (or at least until Kev
Saunders has finished writing his next book!). If you got a book voucher as a present this Christmas, it would be well
used on this book...if you didn't get a voucher, buy it anyway.....and join the ever increasing Kev Saunders' fan base
with bags under their eyes!!!
P. M. Phipps (England), 7 Jan 2008
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