A window cleaner and his brother become burglars at night. One of their victims teams up with a wannabe psychopath to track the burglars down. Her Russian oligarch father instructs his henchman to go after them. They all converge on a mysterious abandoned manor house at which point the whole story turns very dark indeed.
This action-packed short novel is a real page-turner.
Selected quotes:
- "Julian wondered how he had been manipulated into a plan to follow the thieves with Kira one night. The answer was obvious, she was sleeping with him; empty balls equal an empty head." (Ch 6)
- “'Seven hundred so far, another five on top when it’s finished.' Danny tutted. Thirteen hundred quid." (Ch 9) I thought Danny's failure with arithmetic was a clever way of exploring his character.
- "Diseases such as monkey-pox, myxomatosis, SARS and bubonic plague were all man-made; when would the people in white coats think enough was enough?" (Ch 23) Not the claim of one of the characters but a somewhat controversial authorial intervention. I hadn't realised that the conspiracy theorists attributed even bubonic plague, a disease dating back at least to the fourteenth century, to "people in white coats". I understand from the author that this is a reference to a song by the rock band New Model Army.
Morton R Leader has written a number of books including the very different Demons Are Forever. I enjoy the way this author weaves stories from the lives of very ordinary men and women, rather than the middle and upper classes who dominate so much of literature.
April 2023
No comments:
Post a Comment