Woundlicker

by Jason Johnson

Presented in the form of a classified British government report, this thriller follows one man's fight against corruption in the North Ireland Peace Process.

Genres: Fiction

165 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2006

About the author

I'VE always been interested in off-road stories, the sort of stuff that goes to odd and unexpected places.

So, when it comes to fiction, those are the kind of tales I like to write.

Sometimes I spend about four hours on a couple of hundred words, sometimes about four minutes.

I'm not even sure sometimes if I'm doing this right, but then I remember there are no rules.

That's probably the best thing about it.

My Belfast-set thriller DID SHE SEE YOU? is out now.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

an allegorical-type look at belfast post-troubles, through the super-heightened goggles of its violent (yet somehow even-handed) protagonist. hilarious at times, with a dead-on voice. turned my stomach a couple of times as well. it was interesting to read as an outsider here, and a lot of it rang very true in terms of 'what to do now there's no war?'. apparently it was turned down quite a few times before blackstaff press took it on; definitely a no-holds-barred kind of affair.

here's a little bit of it, from somewhere in the middle -

"To be honest, I skived half me schooling. I was at it until I was sixteen, and it was a complete waste of time. The first secondary school was a big comprehensive up the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, and it was right in the worst days of all the shite. There were bomb scares all the time, and the school was blown up once. Then it was set on fire by a bunch of the pupils as well - half burned to the ground, so it was - and the Peelers were looking for a sectarian motive. The wankers. What more motive do you want than the place is a hole."

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A glaring glimpse at the lifestyle poverty produces in an Irish slum is tidily wrapped around a fast-paced thriller. WOUNDLICKER features an antagonist, though broken and twisted, that you somehow sympathize with despite the totality and insanity of his actions. This little novel about Fletcher Fee, a madman spurred by outrage over his life, local observations in the slum he occupies, and, frankly, boredom, and his involvement the sinister happenings that make up the underbelly of the tenuous peace found in Northern Ireland. Set in the strain of that new and tenuous calm, it tracks his disruptions to a sought after end to "the troubles." The novel is presented as a transcript from the British secret service and, if you can buy the way they capture the tale, delivers a confessorial and conspiratorial tale full of suspense that refuses to always take the easiest and most palatable paths. I recommend it to readers who enjoy books like AMERICAN PSYCHO, THE WASPFACTORY, and CHOKE.