Rob Kitchin's Blog, page 166

October reads

A pretty good month of reading.  The standout book for me was Nate Southard's Pale Horses.  The plotline following a sheriff trying to hide he's developing Alzheimers was very well done and was a great hook.

The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcom Mackay ***
Then We Take Berlin by John Lawton ***.5
Jade Lady Burning by Martin Limon ****
Hour of the Cat by Peter Quinn ****
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye ****
A Private Business by Barbara Nadel ****
Black Wattle Creek by Geoffrey McGeachin ***.5
Pale Horses by Nate Southard *****

Review of The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay (Pan, 2013)

Calum MacLean works as a freelance hitman in Glasgow’s underground.  Thoughtful and careful he’s worked out how to operate efficiently, effectively and below the radar.  When Frank MacLeod, the resident gun for Peter Jamieson, needs a hip replacement, MacLean is the obvious person to fill his shoes.  His first job is to dispose of Lewis Winter, a drug dealer who is expanding his operation into Jamieson’s territory with the help of someone else.  A message needs to be sent and MacLean is the man to do it.

I’ve read a number of positive reviews of The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter so I thought I’d give it a go.  The story focuses on MacLean’s life as a hitman, setting out his observations as to what makes a successful career, his worries about being drawn into an organisation rather than operating as a freelance, and the lead up and aftermath of killing Lewis Winter.  The tale has its moments and the almost documentary style narrative is an interesting approach.  However, sometimes a book clicks for a reader and other times it doesn’t and I never really warmed to the story.  Mackay’s writing voice felt too detached, there was no sense of place and story could have been happening anywhere, and I never built an emotional connection to the characters or the tale.  As a consequence, although the book has it merits it unfortunately left me a little cold. 

Review of Then We Take Berlin by John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2013)

1941 and John Holderness’ mother is killed in the blitz.  With his father serving in the army he goes to live with his Granddad, Abner Riley, a safe-cracker, and his partner, Merle, an occasional prostitute.  Holderness is bright and an avid reader and as an apprentice to his grandfather discovers all the tricks to breaking and entering.  In Germany, as the Russians near Berlin, Nell Burkhardt is sent by her parents to her stay with her uncle.  As the American’s arrive she drifts to Bergen-Belson and using her gift for languages does her best to help those interned there.  Shortly after V-Day Holderness is drafted into the RAF.  His quick wit and insolence bring him to the attention of Lt. Colonel Burne-Jones of military intelligence and he’s packed off to Cambridge to learn German and Russian.  Holderness has a gift for words and appetite for learning about the world.  Once trained he’s shipped off to Hamburg to try and spot Nazis who have adopted new identities.  Then in 1947 he’s transferred to Berlin.  There he meets and falls in love with Nell and uses his criminal skills to become active in the black market, hooking up with a US Army captain and three British soldiers to sell knocked-off army supplies.  Their activities escalate when they start supplying a Russian NVKD major with goods, using a long forgotten tunnel beneath the city.  It’s a tunnel that Holderness will return to when he’s asked to extract an elderly woman from East Berlin in 1963.

The first third of Then We Take Berlin is a wonderful read.  John Lawton provides an engaging introduction to John Holderness early years growing up in East London during the war, that of Nell’s in the last days of the war in Germany, and Holderness’ recruitment into military intelligence.  The characterisation is keenly observed and there’s a strong sense of place and context.  In the middle third of the book the narrative starts to become more bitty with many short sections charting Holderness’ time in Hamburg and then Berlin as he becomes involved in the black market and starts a relationship with Nell.  The final third moves the story through the 1950s up to 1963 and Kennedy’s visit to Berlin, and Holderness’ attempt to extract someone from East Berlin.  Here, the narrative is a little sketchy, Nell largely disappears from view, and it’s really not clear what Holderness’ motivations are.  There is an odd and confusing timeline shift, with some scenes from 1955 inserted between the transition from 1948 to 1952 for no apparent reason, but the most disappointing aspect is the ending.  The story just stops.  It feels as if at least twenty odd pages are missing.  The novel as a whole reads as if Lawton wasn’t sure where to take it, or quite how to deal with the twenty year span of time.  This was a shame as the start was excellent and Holderness and Nell are attractive creations.  It’ll be interesting to see how Lawton develops the series.

Lazy Sunday Service

I'm heading to China in December and yesterday I picked up the books I'd ordered for the trip.  Qiu Xialong's A Loyal Character Dancer, Diane Wei Liang's The Eye of Jade, and Lisa Brackmann's Rock, Paper, Tiger.  I'm looking forward both to the trip and the books.  I've not visited China before, so it should be an interesting adventure.

My posts this week
It's a long way to Tipperary
Review of Jade Lady Burning by Martin Limon
Crime Pays
Jack Irish: Bad Debts

It’s a long way to Tipperary

‘The worst thing about being alive is knowing that you are going to die.’

‘Cheer up, Henry.  It may never happen.’

‘But that’s the point.  It is going to happen.  At some point it all ends.  You’re here, then you’re gone.’

‘That’s the deal.  You live, you die.  You make the best of it whilst alive.’

‘But it’s all for nothing.’

‘I wouldn’t call this nothing.’  George tapped the dashboard of the BMW.

‘It’s just a materialistic distraction on the path to your inevitable doom.’

‘If you don’t lighten up, Henry, you’re gonna be dead before we get to Tipperary.’





A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.

Review of Jade Lady Burning by Martin Limon (1991, Soho Crime)

South Korea in the 1970s, the war is almost over for twenty years, but there is still a large US Military presence in a country developing rapidly.  George Sueno and Ernie Bascom work for the Military Police of the US 8th Army, mostly trawling the bars of Itaewon, the red-light district frequented by US military personnel, and trying to keep the thriving black market of military supplies in check.  When Pak Ok-Suk, a young Korean woman is found brutally murdered in her apartment, the gaze of suspicion falls upon her young GI boyfriend.  Under pressure to wrap the case up quickly, the man is arrested and handed over to the Korean police.  Sueno and Bascom, however, are not convinced of the man’s guilt, and despite warnings to drop the case, continue to investigate, placing themselves in ever more danger.

The interesting thing about Jade Lady Burning is Limon populates the story with unlikeable people doing unlikeable things in unlikeable places and yet has produced a very likeable tale.  Sueno and Bascom are rough around the edges military police officers who drink too much, party with prostitutes in Itaewon, the red-light district of Seoul, and turn a blind-eye to some black market activity.  The tale works well for three reasons.  First, Limon tells the story at face value: he doesn’t romanticise or idealise or sanitize the Itaewon underworld, nor does he portray Sueno and Bascom as likeable rogues.  Instead, the tale is told with gritty realism.  Second, the story is well contextualised with respect to Korean society after the war and the relationship with the US military and its operations.  Third, there is a compelling plot - the investigation into the death of a young Korean woman and the arrest of a young GI - which builds to a nice denouement.  Overall, an engaging and entertaining slice of social realism.

Crime Pays: Free all-day online TV workshop with Bruen, Casey, Hughes and O'Connor

On October 30th a WritersWebTV will broadcast an online workshop on all aspects of crime fiction with best-selling crime authors Ken Bruen, Jane Casey, Declan Hughes and Niamh O’Connor.  The workshop will run from 10am to 4pm and will be streamed live from a multi-camera broadcast studio in Dublin.  Viewers will be able to interact with those in studio to help them develop their skills.

Multi-award-winning Ken Bruen - the author of the Jack Taylor series which has become a TV hit starring Iain Glen – will talk through writing great hook-lines and how to develop characters across a series. Jane Casey, author of the Maeve Kerrigan series of crime novels will guide participants through the basics of narrative and plot. Declan Hughes - author of the Ed Loy PI series - rigorously plans his writing and he’ll be giving his insights on how to plan for your novel while being open to new sources of inspiration. Niamh O’Connor, one of Ireland’s leading crime journalists, will lead us through the research process and crack the code of juggling family, writing and a day-job.

WritersWebTV has developed a world-first innovation in online education for writers by providing livestreamed interactive workshops to a global audience, featuring Irish and international best-selling writers and industry professionals.  The authors will interact with an in-studio audience of aspiring writers, who present their work for critique. Online viewers can communicate with those in the studio using Twitter, Facebook or email. They can ask a question, take part in a workshop exercise, comment online and benefit from on-screen feedback from the authors in-studio.

Led by experienced workshop facilitator Vanessa O’Loughlin, founder of writing.ie, the panel will consider the key elements of fiction writing and furnish viewers with tips, advice and actionable insights to help them improve their writing and get it on the path to publication.

Sounds like it will be an interesting set of sessions and worth tuning in for.  More info can be found on the WritersWebTv site.

Jack Irish: Bad Debts

Got round to watching Jack Irish: Bad Debts last night.  It was a little bitty at first as it tried to put in place a lot of back story quite quickly, but then settled down into a recognisable version of Peter Temple's novel of the same name.  It perhaps had too many short scenes, a function of trying to work in all facets of Jack's life as well as the main plot, and would have probably benefitted from being half an hour longer, or two one hour episodes.  Nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable, with an excellent cast and strong chemistry amongst the actors, especially Guy Pearce and Marta Dusseldorp.  Recommended viewing.

Lazy Sunday Service

The end is in sight for the present academic book I'm writing.  I have first drafts of ten chapters, minus their conclusion sections.  Once I've tidied them up that just leaves the final, conclusion chapter.  And to go through and edit, re-jig and revise the whole script.  I feel more confident now that I should make the end of January submission date, despite being swamped with other work.  We'll see. 

My posts this week

Wayward salmon
Review of Hour of the Cat by Peter Quinn
Totally capivating
Review of The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

Wayward salmon

Aoife glanced over at the empty armchair.  In her mind’s eye her granny raised her eyebrows: ‘I told you so.’

‘Is that President Kennedy?’  Marie asked.

She turned attention back to the pile of photographs. 

A woman and a man were dancing in front of a crowd of onlookers.

‘Yes.’  She flipped the photo to the bottom of the pile.

‘And that’s John Lennon.’ She shuffled through the collection.  ‘George Best.  Elvis Presley.  James Dean.’

‘So her tall stories were true?’

‘Seems so.’

‘But what was she doing living here?’

‘She said, “Even wayward Irish salmon return home to die”.’




A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.