false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg 398081 6 Malcolm Pryce's witty and scabrous comic thriller <I>Aberystwyth Mon Amour</I> is an original and diverting entry into the field of black-comedy writing--a genre which has enjoyed a long and healthy lineage, from Voltaire through Evelyn Waugh to the present day although lately it is pretty well the preserve of crime fiction. Making the unexciting Welsh town of Aberystwyth seem as fascinating and dangerous for his hardboiled 'tec as the mean streets of Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles is a daunting task but it's a trick Pryce pulls off with considerable aplomb. <p> Throughout Aberystwyth, schoolboys are vanishing without trace, and Louie Knight, the town's only private investigator, becomes involved when he has a visit from the exotic singer Myfanwy Montez (love the name!). She is the star of Wales' most outrageous nightclub, and is keen for Louie to track down her missing cousin, known as Evans the Boot. Aided by such eccentrics as philosopher-cum-ice-cream seller Sospan, Louie finds himself encountering a plot quite as labyrinthine as any which exercised Philip Marlowe. Surely Lovespoon, Grand Wizard of the Druids and the town's most powerful citizen, had a hand in the disappearances? <p> Nothing is quite as it seems in Pryce's outrageous and irreverent tale, which functions as a canny thriller as much as a wry parody. A good deal of the humour comes from relocating Chandler's sun-baked California locales to a parochial Welsh town, and all the clichés are ruthlessly exploded: Louie is visited in his seedy office by his sultry female client in time-honoured fashion. But it's the language, which leaps off the page, that really marks Pryce out as a stylist of no mean skill, and his bizarre refraction of Marlowe-speak is a real delight: <blockquote> By the time I reached the whelk stall the drizzle had finally made up its mind and turned into rain, driving forward hard off the sea and into my face. The booth was quiet: no-one there except a kid in charge--a pimply adolescent in a grubby white coat and a silly cardboard hat. I ordered the special and waited, as the youth kept a wary eye on me; trouble was never far away at this time of night. </blockquote> . --<I>Barry Forshaw</I> 387539 2001 Aberystwyth Mon Amour total:114|5:21|4:47|3:33|2:7|1:6| 114 412 162 19 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 4 1 false Wed Aug 12 02:07:34 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 01:43:40 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 02:07:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 5 1 false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 30 01:15:54 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 10 01:36:22 -0700 2007 1128389 0747553858 9780747553854 8 3 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181224609m/1128389.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1128389.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 3 0 false Sun Jan 06 18:30:15 -0800 2008 Mon Aug 17 13:30:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 5 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 26 14:13:27 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 30 15:57:54 -0700 2008 In the past few years, however, Lady Luck had decided she would be better off with someone else, abandoning me mid-ocean with a series of dull noir wannabes I have...more...]]> 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 4 0 false Mon Jan 19 23:47:20 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 23:48:27 -0800 2009 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 1 0 false Sat Jan 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 03:02:27 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 03:04:22 -0800 2009 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 4 0 false Sat Jun 11 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Tue Apr 21 08:05:42 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 08:05:57 -0700 2009 1128389 0747553858 9780747553854 8 3 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181224609m/1128389.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1128389.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 4 0 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Mar 02 13:59:02 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 14:00:54 -0800 2009 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 3 0 false Tue Jun 23 11:05:41 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 11:06:04 -0700 2009 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 4 0 false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 13 12:42:57 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 13 12:46:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 5 0 false Wed May 13 13:41:47 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 15:47:11 -0700 2009 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 4 0 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sun Apr 27 12:11:53 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 16 11:32:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 5 0 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Apr 18 16:11:52 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 18 16:11:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 2 0 false Tue Aug 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 14:10:07 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 12:10:16 -0700 2009 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 4 0 false Thu May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Dec 23 11:15:21 -0800 2008 Thu May 14 11:17:01 -0700 2009 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 5 0 false Tue Dec 16 18:06:03 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 18:07:22 -0800 2008 Raymond Chandler. Fantastic array of characters.]]> 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 3 0 false Mon Sep 15 12:05:09 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 17 20:42:59 -0800 2008 1128389 0747553858 9780747553854 8 3 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181224609m/1128389.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1128389.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 3 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Wed Mar 12 13:01:16 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 12 13:01:16 -0700 2008 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 4 0 false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Aug 29 05:36:41 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 04 23:42:03 -0700 2007 398081 0747557861 9780747557869 103 16 3.61 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174426644m/398081.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/398081.Aberystwyth_Mon_Amour 4 0 false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 10 12:59:20 -0800 2009 Thu Dec 10 14:07:11 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=398081