OverExposure

by Hugo Rifkind

All is not well in the Big Smoke...When a shadowy cat-burglar called 'Fingers' starts nicking rocks from London's celebrities, Macaulay Lewis, a misfit news-hound, scents opportunity. If he can unmask the thief, he might just stand a chance of holding down his job with the paper. His ex-girlfriend might fancy him again. He might even get snapped by the odd celeb magazine himself. Fame glitters. But is all that glitters really worth the cab ride home? Overexposure is arch farce and rollicking thriller rolled into one, with unforgettable characters, brilliant dialogue and laugh-out-loud quips. Expose yourself to the flashiest, edgiest comedy of modern life in recent years.

Genres: Crime

346 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey! I just caught up with your story and really liked how immersive it feels. Some moments instantly played out in my head like illustrated panels.
I work as a commission-based comic/webtoon artist, and if you’d ever like to talk about a visual adaptation, I’m always open.
📩 Discord & Instagram: lizziedoesitall

[ADAM N G FOX · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rambling nonsense

So many times I wanted to give up but weirdly compelled to read on. Having now finished the book, I’m still not sure why. Really not Mr Rifkind’s best (for that, make sure to read Rabbits).

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Macaulay Lewis has a major problem. Sure he was there the night that shadowy society cat-burglar Fingers stole the Bushman's Thimbles (diamonds that is) from Gemma Conrad's nipples, with the weathergirl not even noticing they had gone. But he kind of didn't update the copy that subsequently went out on his own newspaper's front page so there was no mention of this startling event. Bit embarrassing. Even more embarrassing because the glittering social event was that paper's own Diamond Awards night.

Mac is pretty used to stuffing up though - he spends most of his life in a slightly hung-over increasingly desperate search for a life. Fingers, though, is not the life he wants. The powers that be at the newspaper seem to think that Fingers is somehow their story and despite everything, they hope that Mac is their inner track to the cat burglar. Everybody else in the London media has other ideas. Mac, alas, finds himself more and more at events where Fingers pulls off one of his grand heists and slowly people start to wonder whether Mac and Fingers are more closely acquainted than initially thought. Whilst everyone else is madly speculating, Mac is just trying to get through the day and maybe get laid.

As Fingers increasingly pulls off more elaborate thefts, Mac finds his job security more and more threatened by his total inability to get anything right about this story, and he's no closer to getting his ex-girlfriend Elspeth to fancy him again. He also can't get sister Janie to stop dating losers and sister (christened Margaret - now Miriam) to stop playing the role of Jewish Princess. With their Scottish father and absent Jewish mother, Mac, Margaret and Janie are a close set of siblings despite everything.

OVER EXPOSURE is a bit of a romp through the grotty, silly, self-obsessed world of B-grade celebrity, heavy duty partying and the gossip columns of London. The famous names are liberally sprinkled throughout the book, but for non-UK based, not addicted to TV readers, it will require acceptance that these people were probably famous for some reason and the ability to just let that roll, because frankly, this particular reader has only heard of one in every 10 of the names.

There's also nothing terribly serious about OVER EXPOSURE, but the silliness is quite catching. Readers will have to be prepared for a bit of debauchery and some overt drug use and drinking, but Mac's a great character and there are some good, strong secondary characters orbiting around him. OVER EXPOSURE is a really fun, silly caper book, built around these elaborate celebrity thefts and a bloke who is just trying to straighten up and get the girl.

[Nick Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - Though I don't have a set-in-stone 'hundred page rule', the first few chapters of this held my interest so little that I didn't make it past about page ninety. It wasn't badly written per se (Rifkind is a columnist and journalist, he can string a sentence together OK), it was just that the subject of media people and celebrity and hard-drinking hard-partying folks just didn't really interest me. So I've put it aside. Permanently, I guess.

[Susan Bradshaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. It was too much of a chore to read beyond halfway. Such supercilious, superficial, waffle. What is it about journalists? They're supposed to be writers. I tried this one after reading just one of his others - which was really poor - in order to give him another chance. Wasted my time. He's a supercilious, judgemental, mediocre writer.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend wrote this highly entertaining scurrilous book. A character in this book has my name, which would be flattering if the character wasn't a bald, fat preditory homosexual. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not being a bloke, London-centric or culturally aware, this novel was definitely not aimed at me as ideal reader. Nevertheless, as a result of the writing, characters and excellently convoluted plot, I did enjoy it, along with the social commentary.