Men behaving badly. Old friend helps another, seemingly more successful friend.

Drive-By Shouting is well-written. It is about life specifically about love, hope, trust and betrayal. There are so many lessons and in a great pace. Drive-By Shouting is refreshing and entertaining. I enjoyed reading this book so much.

Oh, how those girls had loved an artist; now, guitars were carried by buskers and out of touch wannabes, while guys who couldn't play a note, but called themselves DJs, got laid every night.

Matt and Gram were down and out band members in England finally on there way to the top when they were dropped from their record label. By pure dumb luck, desperation and selling out, Matt became a TV celebrity and family man, and at 36 years old Gram kept his integrity as a musician by riding the bus to play gigs at local taverns with minimal pay. After several years and many bad decisions, the fame and fortune comes back to bite Matt in the butt, and he asks Gram for help to which Gram immediately turns him down. The story goes on to include secrets, revenge, and karma.

I'm not a big fan of stories that jump around from past, present and future and this book has lots of that. Some of the emotional outbursts from some of the characters are not credible and the story is mediocre at best.

I must mention right off the bat that the publisher was kind enough to give me a free copy for review via Netgalley.

All-round nice guy Gram Kane is down on his luck. A once-promising musician, he let his integrity get in the way of success.

Not that he’s complaining, of course. Even as he’s working for pennies and slim pickings, Matt Man is ruefully happy.

But his erstwhile friend Matt Mann has gone on to become a massive success, and Gram knows all the skeletons in his past.

Matt continues to trample over his friend until one day, Gram has had enough.
This is a simple tale of friendship, betrayal, revenge, hope and dreams.

Mark Chase does an admirable job in keeping the story moving forward.

All the characters, even the so-called negative characters, are wonderfully realized. There are no unsympathetic characters here.

Sure, every character has his or her flaw, even the protagonist, Gram Kane.

But Chase does a superb job of fully fleshing out his characters, a touch so deft you end up feeling for every single character.

Not once during this book did I feel like the story was stretched too thin.

The ending is also very well realized.

Highly recommended, a solid 4.5/5.

This book reminded me of the movie High Fidelity. It was a fun read. It wrapped up a little too pretty in the end, but there is nothing wrong with a happy ending now in again.