August Reads

[Donna Moore]

DECLAN BURKE - THE BIG O

Protagonist: An ensemble cast

Series?: Standalone

Published: 2007

Setting: Ireland

Karen is a receptionist with bad PMT. She's also a stick-up artist with a .44 Magnum. Karen's boss is Frank - a slimy and distinctly rubbish plastic surgeon with money worries, two grasping daughters, a soon-to-be-ex-wife, Madge, and a dodgy lawyer who suggests that all Frank's worries can be solved by having Madge snatched. Enter Karen's new boyfriend, Ray, who she met when she nearly blew his head off during a stick-up. Ray paints murals for children. He's also a babysitter - the sort of babysitter who kidnaps people. It's a sort of 'boy meets girl, boy plans to kidnap girl's best friend, girl's psycho headcase ex boyfriend causes havoc' type of scenario.
A kidnap caper that is very funny, exhilerating, violent and snappy. Great characters, wonderful dialogue, a fast moving plot. A hell of a lot of fun.


KEN BRUEN - AMMUNITION

Protagonist: Inspector Brant (plus the assorted denizens of Britain's most corrupt nick)

Series?: 7th
Published: 2007

Setting: The mean streets of South East London

Brant is NOT happy. Not only is his hero - Ed McBain - dead, but Brant has been targetted by a hitman. The question is not so much 'who on earth could want Brant dead?' but 'who the hell DOESN'T?' Fast and furious plot, funny and stylish prose, characters who make you shudder and smile at the same time. As ever, the thin line between right and wrong is crossed and recrossed until it's no longer there. And, also as ever, Bruen serves up a few surprises. One thing I really love about Ken Bruen's books is that you can never take anything for granted. Brilliant stuff.



ANDREW HOLMES - RAIN DOGS AND LOVE CATS

Protagonist: Charlie Watson

Series?: Standalone

Published: 2007

Setting: London suburbs

Charlie and his wife have just had a baby. They've moved back to suburbia where Charlie plays cheesy 80s music at weddings and 40th birthday parties and sells collectibles online. He's sort of jealous of his brother Leo, who's single, has a hot girlfriend and is a Tom Waits impersonator. Only one day Leo is killed in a car accident and Charlie discovers that Leo appears to have had a sideline as a private investigator. Dark, funny and sweet. There's action and excitement but it's more a thoughtful and wry look at family, long buried secrets, and how someone's life may be different from how it seems. The characters could be people you live next door to. Actually, I'd really like to live next door to Charlie - I'd be nipping in and out to borrow his record collection.



JEAN PATRICK MANCHETTE - THREE TO KILL

Protagonist: Georges Gerfaut

Series?: Standalone

Published: 1976

Setting: France

Georges Gerfaut is a family man, well off, bourgeois, and his past as a radical leftwinger seems like a long time ago. Travelling home one night he stops to help an injured motorist. He takes him to hospital, but for some reason he leaves before giving his details as good samaritan. He then heads off on holiday with his family - only to be pursued by killers. Spare and told in quite a cold manner, THREE TO KILL is hard-boiled, tongue in cheek and ironic.