When you have the chance to change your life would you take it, or die trying?

When Mike Slater and Dan Sharpe set off on a dream football tour of Europe things could only get better. Mike would be free from living under his father’s shadow and Dan free from a father who only looked at him through the bottom of a vodka bottle. But from the onset their dream quickly turns into a nightmare.

Unknowingly coerced into smuggling drugs they become pawns for Interpol, live bait to catch one of Europe’s biggest drug barons who will stop at nothing to retrieve what is his.

Pursued by killers through Belgium, Holland, Germany and eventually Paris, they will run for their lives testing their courage to the limit. Only then will they learn the hard truth that misguided teenage actions lead to consequences that will turn boys into men and change their lives forever.

Who would have thought playing football might get you killed.

The Wrong Game is about the unfaltering friendship of two teenagers from the Northeast of England. Through the authors real life experiences Marc Powell takes them away from their two very different worlds. Dan, a trouble maker who is full of attitude, thinks only of himself and shows complete disregard and defiance to any authority. Mike is the exact opposite, sensible and grown up beyond his years and who is the calming influence that his troubled friend needs. Both share a common desire to become better than what society expects them to become. Through their love of football they are free to experience adulthood without fear of antagonising those around them who both love and use them in equal measure.

The author shows that it only takes one wrong decision, even though that decision is taken with all good intent, your life and that of everyone you know and love will never be the same again. Courage can sometimes only be found when you look into the eyes of your friend and see the light of hope fading. Marc reflects this by sending the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions. He shows how teenage eyes are opened to a world of sex, drugs, bigotry, first love and finally fear and death.

Marc Powell’s same love of football, his years in the military and later as Police officer combined with living and working in Europe gives credibility to a story that is full of real life events. Interspersed with humour and told at a pace that gathers momentum throughout, “The Wrong Game” is a book that will capture the imagination of both young teens and adults alike, irrespective of holding a passion towards the sport.