Watching the Wheels Come Off

by Mike Hodges

From the legendary director of Get Carter comes a wildly entertaining fiction debut—a deliciously dark slice of black crime comedy Today is a day Mark Miles will never forget—and it's only the beginning. Reg Turpin, the new Houdini and one of Mark's few remaining PR clients, is about to attempt a great feat of escapology, followed by the arrival in town of Dr. Herman Temple, the self-appointed guru, who will conduct a seminar on the dynamics of leadership at the Grand Atlantic Hotel. What could go wrong? Nothing, apart from the seedy private investigor who's unpacking his thermal underwear, pajamas, and a .32 Smith and Wesson at a local bed and breakfast; assorted women of easy virtue on Mark's trail; a man whose name is really Bela Lugosi; and that's just for starters. Matters invariably go from bad to worse, and the unheroic hero of this ferocious nightmare navigates the quicksand of fate with a total lack of poise and elegance.

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 2009

Reviews

[Zak · Rating 1 out of 5]

170 pages in and I'm out. This book is all kinds of awful. Messy. Hectic. Funny, but, it goes nowhere. Unfocused, drivel.


Then halfway through I decided to look at the hardcover I recently brought by Mike Hodges called BAIT, GRIST & SECURITY, with this. And guess what, it is mostly THIS BOOK, just retitled, oddly rewritten, and pitched differently on the inside flap as a wholly new story, with a couple short novellas added. Fuck, what a waste of a collective 23 quid.

Don't bother. This is solid gold standards of crap.