Rob Kitchin's Blog, page 204

Review of Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig (Angry Robot, 2012)

Miriam Black is twenty two years old yet she has witnessed hundreds of deaths.  She only has to touch skin-on-skin with another person and she has a vision of how when and how they’ll die.  Initially she tried to intervene, to save people from their fate, but she soon learnt that by doing so she became an agent in their death.  Haunted by her lack of ability to stop accidents, murders and disease she has drifted into a life on the road, moving from one location to the next, scavenging money from people who she knows are about to die and living by her wits.  One night she hitches a ride with Louis, a truck driver.  She feels comfortable in his presence until she shakes his hand and sees his gruesome death in thirty days time in  which he calls out her name.  Knowing that she will be responsible for his death and that she herself will be in great danger she flees his company in an effort to cheat fate.  If she’s not present, then his death cannot unfold as foreseen.  Later that evening she hooks up with small-time con artist, Ashley, who trails in his wake a gang looking for retribution.  Then she bumps into Louis again.  Whichever way she twists and turns, Louis’ fate and thus her own seem sealed.

Blackbirds is somewhat of a curious book.  The hook is excellent and some of the writing mouth watering, yet there is something slightly off key.  Having slept on it I think the issue is that story felt like two separate tales jammed together.  On the one hand, it is the story of Miriam, a young woman who is street smart, damaged, fragile, feisty and generally messed up, who on touching someone sees a vision of their death, and her search for answers, redemption and some kind of hope and alternative future.  Wendig does a great job at detailing her life, her thoughts, dreams and fears, mixing the present with her back story, and her tentative relationship with Louis, who is also damaged goods and looking for a new start.  The characterization is excellent and I’d happily spend more time in her company.  On the other hand, it is the story of small-time con artist, Ashley, and the three psychotic serial killers who are after him.  Whilst Ashley is mildly interesting, Harriet, Frankie and Ingersoll are caricatures cookie-cut from serial killer dough.  More awkward is the weaving of the two tales together.  Ashley is stalking Miriam, whilst also on the run from Ingersoll and co, who are meant to be drug dealers.  These are straight-up psychotic serial killers (a band of three), not drug dealers (with territory, networks, etc).  It is not at all clear how Ashley is tracking Miriam, or how Ingersoll and co are tracking Ashley.  Ashley simply turns up at whatever motel Miriam is staying and Harriet and Frankie arrive shortly after.  This may be urban fantasy, but the plot has to make sense within the logic of the world created.  The result, for me at least, was the fascinating and wonderful thread concerning Miriam was undermined by the intersecting storyline which didn’t ring true.  It did work to create tension and action, and a lot of swearing and violence, and to set up the endgame with respect to Louis, but this tale is all about Miriam and those elements could have been there without Ingersoll and co.  Overall then, a story with a great hook and lead character, that has some striking, engaging prose, but a plotline that seems to fuse two tales that don’t quite gel.  I doubt I’ll buy a book with a better cover this year; very intricate and striking.

A year of drabbles

Saturday marked the first anniversary of my weekly drabble.  Below is a list of all 52.  I generally pen them on a Saturday morning, with each one written and published in half an hour or so.  It can take a little bit longer if I'm struggling to hit exactly 100 words or if it's taking a while to craft into a story.  I find them a great writing exercise and fun to do.  Hopefully they're an enjoyable, quick read.  Difficult to pick favourites, but I have soft spots for Blood pumping quick, The song of the sea and Can you smell smoke?

A little encouragement
A long, lonely night in the desert
And half of nothing is?
Blood pumping quick
Brief encounter
Bulldog Salts
Can you smell smoke? 
Cancelling Christmas
Can't live without shoes
Closing down sale
Cornered
Desperately seeking ...
Empty promises
Fast car
Final notice
First at the scene 
For a few pennies more
He's gone
I know you're not the answer
I'm meant to be grateful? 
In harm's way
iphone, your phone
It is what it is
Karma coma
Leaving home
Losing Trigger
Lost
Many a true word said in jest
Nine tenths of the law
Nothing under the mattress 
Peppered tail
Prowler
Real life calling 
Self-defence  
She has to go
She wrecks my head
Shhh ... Sugar 
Silence and lies
Swimming with loan sharks
The clearing
The cook is in meltdown 
The dance floor swallows him whole
The drink talking
The end of a dream
This isn't a game
The long walk
The song of the sea 
Whiskey and tears
Will be caught, won't be caught 
You can ring my parents
You can practically taste the pong 
You'd better sit down

Lazy Sunday Service

In The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy it takes the supercomputer Deep Thought 7½ million years to compute and check the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.  It turns out the answer is 42.  Since I have now have 364 days at this grand age, perhaps I might discover what the ultimate question is?  Who knows.  It must be twenty years since I read the books.  Maybe I'll re-read at least the first one some time in the next year.


My posts this week:
Review of Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis
Review of Blood Tears by Michael J Malone
When an author interrupts the story
July reviews
Review of A Long Silence by Nicolas Freeling
First at the scene

First at the scene

McCarthy tugged the black leather coat to one side to reveal the handle of a knife jammed between lower ribs.

‘I suspect this might be the source of all the blood.’

‘You reckon?’ Polanski said.  ‘Do you think it killed him as well?’

‘Part of a set. Someone’s going to be pissed to find it missing.’

‘Not as pissed as Dead Guy.’

‘Small wound like that, could have taped it up.’

‘Right, with sellotape.’

‘More like duct-tape.  There’s nothing you can’t fix with duct-tape.’

‘Shame he didn’t have any.’

‘Yeah, it would be a lot less paperwork.  Call it in.’



A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.

Review of A Long Silence by Nicolas Freeling (Penguin, 1972)

Whilst eating a sandwich on an Amsterdam street Richard stares into a antique jeweller's shop.  His reward is the manager of the store offering him a job as a sales assistant.  When he’s told to clean out a drawer and finds an expensive gold watch he decides to go to Commissioner Piet Van der Valk, suspicious that he is being tested in some way.  The former detective has been put out to grass in The Hague working on a European committee concerning law reform. Van der Valk’s interested is piqued and he starts to nose around from a personal perspective, a small puzzle to challenge his talents, jotting down cryptic observations in a notebook.  He senses that the jewellers are up to something fishy, but can’t find any concrete evidence.  But this is a puzzle he is not going to solve.  Instead he is shot dead walking home from work.  The police can find no leads to his killer.  Frustrated with the police investigation, his grieving wife, Arlette, decides that she will try to find her husband’s killer, starting with trying to decode some of his notebooks.

I struggled through A Long Silence.  It didn’t work for me at a number of levels.  First, Freeling’s style is more show than tell, with lengthy descriptive, reflective and back story passages.  Second, the plot just didn’t seem to make much sense: a person recruited off the street without any assessment; going to a policeman in another city because a watch was found; assassinating a policeman who is barely trying and has no evidence of any wrongdoing.  Third, the author inserts himself into the story immediately after he kills off his detective to provide a personal account of the real life detective on which Piet Van der Valk was based and his relationship with him and his wife.  It's a strange interlude, especially as a lot of it is not that complementary and quite misogynist.  And it totally disrupts the narrative flow of the novel.  The second half is a little better, swapping into a cozy, but the resolution is a bit of a damp squib.  All in all, a weak story and storytelling that failed to provide a compelling narrative.

July reviews

A good month of reading and difficult to pick a book of the month.  Both Blood Tears by Michael Malone and The Envoy by Edward Wilson stood out from the pack.  I'm going to go with The Envoy, a very well constructed Cold War spy thriller.


Blood Tears by Michael J Malone *****
Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis ****
The Rocksburg Railroad Murders by K.C. Constantine ****.5
The Barbed-Wire University by Midge Gillies ***
Shaman Pass by Stan Jones ***.5
The Envoy by Edward Wilson *****
Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason ***
Silesian Station by David Downing ****.5
The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming ***.5

When an author interrupts the story

I'm currently reading 'A Long Silence' by Nicolas Freeling.  It's been a curious book from the outset, but it has taken a very odd turn from about halfway through.  Freeling interrupts the story immediately after he kills off his detective to provide a personal account of the real life detective on which Piet Van der Valk was based and his relationship with him and his wife.  It's a strange interlude, especially as a lot of it is not that complementary and quite misogynist.  And it totally disrupts the narrative flow of the novel.  Moreover, Freeling continues to insert himself in the rest of the text, as if he's recounting the story on behalf of the detective's wife, whilst at the same time making judgements about her.  It's either a clever piece of postmodern fiction or a very odd series of interventions.  It's the kind of thing that is usually reserved for an explanatory endnote.  At the moment, I'm not at all convinced it's a clever piece of postmodern fiction, but maybe I'll change my mind by the time I reach the end.

Review of Blood Tears by Michael J Malone (Five Leaves Press, 2012)

DI Ray McBain is a loner with a troubled past, having moved from one institution to another - children’s home to seminary to police force.  When an elderly man is found brutally murdered in a Glasgow flat, marked with the wounds of the Stigmata, McBain’s past comes hurtling forward to the present.  Heading up the investigation, McBain suppresses information that will get him removed from the case and leans on a young female cop to keep quiet.  It’s a move that comes back to haunt him, along with violent nightmares and repressed memories.  As he desperately searches for the killer his carefully constructed world starts to unravel, leaving him looking like the prime suspect. 

Blood Tears is a remarkably assured debut novel.  It manages to be both a detailed character study of a police officer with a dark, troubled history, and a well-plotted, psychological police procedural that maintains an edgy tension from start to end.  DI Ray McBain is a complex character, who craves acceptance whilst also being contrary and distant.  Malone provides a well-rounded view of his strengthens and foibles, placed in a rich back story, and surrounded by a strong secondary cast.  The writing is expressive and taut, and the plot unfolds at a relentless pace, rising to a nice climax.  Malone uses misdirection quite effectively, making one wonder where the story is heading and for the most part avoids obvious plot devices.  He also avoids explicit violence and gore, except for a couple of places where it is vital to the plot, and does so in a non-gratuitous way.  Overall, an entertaining read that marks the start of what promises to be a strong series.

Review of Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis (Sort of Books, 2008)

Wei Wei, the daughter of a high ranking Chinese police officer, has travelled to Britain to take a degree course at Leeds University.  Bored with her studies and wanting something more glamorous and exciting she’s hooked up with Black Fort, the leader of a local criminal gang. Ding Ming arrives in Britain (the so-called 'Gold Mountain') with his young wife, Little Ye, in a container after a long and arduous journey across Asia and Europe courtesy of the Snakeheads.  For the privilege they now owe them several years service working hard labour for minimal wage.  They’re met by Black Fort and his British colluder, Fat Kevin, and are immediately separated.  When Inspector Jian receives a distressed call from his daughter and no answer to his subsequent calls he boards a plane for Britain.  He can speak no English, his money does not seem to purchase very much, and he has lost the authority he wields in China.  A fish out of water, he blunders his way along, co-opting Chinese people to help translate.  He is soon on Wei Wei’s and Black Fort’s trail, kidnapping the naive peasant Ding Ming, who has a smattering of pigeon-English, along the way.  All Ding Ming wants is to keep his new masters happy and to be reunited his wife.  But Jian has other ideas setting them on a collision course with the ruthless criminal gang.

The premise for Bad Traffic is a good one: both privileged and peasant Chinese struggling to find their place in a new country with limited English and understanding of the culture.  It enables Lewis to both explore the differing Chinese experiences of Britain and to give an impression of Britain through the eyes of others, and to also give some insight into modern China.  It’s an opportunity he doesn’t waste, providing an engaging and unsettling tale of the illegal immigrant experience and the gang’s who run the trafficking routes.  To do so, Lewis regularly switches the perspective of the narrative between the principle characters, all of whom are well portrayed.  His prose is all show and no tell, driven along by dialogue and action, with the story told through a series of short, punchy chapters.  The plot is generally well constructed, but sometimes strays a little too close to farce and plot devices designed to keep the caper nature of the story moving along.  They work to alleviate what is essentially a dark tale, but also nibble away at the credibility of some elements of the tale.  Nevertheless this is a well written, unsettling and entertaining read that manages to find a fresh angle on the contemporary British crime novel.

Lazy Sunday Service

I started Blood Tears by Michael J. Malone yesterday evening.  Sunday morning and I'm only a few pages from the end.  As gritty, psychological police procedurals go, its very good.  I was hooked from pretty much the get-go and haven't been able to put it down since.  Set in Glasgow and Ayr, it's published by the small Nottingham based, Five Leaves Publications, who've also published work by Stephen Booth, Ray Banks, Allan Gutherie, Russel McLean and Charlie Williams.  Usually £8.99, it's presently free on Kindle (or at least it is the day this blog post was written).  Thoroughly recommend checking it out.

My posts this week:

777: Seven sentences from page seven
Placing neoliberalism: the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger
Review of The Barbed-Wire University by Midge Gillies
What to make of the property prices data?
First draft completed (thankfully)
Review of The Rocksburg Railroad Murders by K.C. Constantine
1000 up!
Real life calling