Pegg packs a punch with his debut book
Jon Pegg watches sparring at Eastside gym, Birmingham
THE RULE OF TEN by JON PEGG
JON Pegg is a man of many parts, an individual who strides very diverse landscapes.
There’s Pegg, the boxing man – an ex-fighter, manager and promoter who has become a familiar figure in the corner during televised contests.
There’s Pegg the playwright whose work has been staged by Coleshill Drama Group.
There’s Pegg the film director – and his “shorts” have scooped a string of global festival awards.
Now the Birmingham man can add author to the list after the launch of his first book, The Rule of Ten.
Pegg is evidently a fighter and a writer.
And a very good writer judging by this debut, a fast-paced storyline that is a cocktail of crime and conspiracy, power and secret politics.
“The Rule Of Ten” has its foundation in the long-held belief by many that strings are pulled and big decisions made – decision big enough to alter history - by a network of Midas rich individuals, not the leaders we see nightly on TV screens.
They control the media and the masses. It is a conspiracy theory that has been levelled at a number of individuals throughout the ages.
Pegg’s book takes it to a new level, with a host of unlikely enforcers rubbing out anyone who threatens to topple the rule of ten.
And they are eliminated extremely violently – in graphic, raw detail: the detail not detracting, but adding to the grimy description of society’s unseen underbelly.
The uneasy status quo between those 10 families is maintained by an ancient order known as The Saints. Their job is to prevent all out war between the Houses.
A picture of each individual and each weapon is painted in meticulous detail.
“That was one of the hardest parts,” said Pegg, “the research. Finding out if that was the gun they used, what it would do – I didn’t want anyone coming back and saying, ‘that isn’t right’.”
It’s a fairly weighty tome, yet took Pegg less than a year to complete.
Cover of Jon’s debut novel, The Rule of Ten - a story that packs a punch
I’m genuinely surprised by it. I’m always surprised by any literary work from a member of the fight fraternity that is not about the fight fraternity.
I’m surprised by its structure, its flow and drama. This is not a laboured, predictable riddle that readers solve long before the last chapter.
What it is, is a riveting read, an edge-of-your-seat ride, with real, modern disasters such as the pandemic weaved into the storyline.
Pegg’s prose pack a punch.
He laughed: Tell (Peaky Blinders creator) Steven Knight to look no further for his next project.”
The plot line is certainly the stuff of TV or big screen blockbusters.
And “Rule of Ten” ends with a cliff-hanger that begs for a second book: that’s the boxer in Pegg – you never throw everything in the opening rounds.
Needless to say, Pegg is already well into that sequel – and he plans to produce a trilogy.
*To get a copy go to https://books.by/the-rule-of-ten