On My Shelves – The Murder Exchange by Simon Kernick

Blurb

THE CURRENCY IS DEATH

Five grand for a couple of hours work?

It seems easy money, but the deal ex-mercenary Max Iversson is chasing has gone disastrously wrong. Two of his friends are dead. And now he wants to find out who’s behind their killings.

Detective Sergeant John Gallan is also looking for answers. He’s investigating the fatal poisoning of a nightclub doorman. But leads are scarce and, when they do appear, so do bodies.

What neither man knows is that they are heading towards a devastating confrontation that will see one of them staring down the wrong end of a gun.

My Review

There’s a gun to your head, and nothing you can do about. Except it’s not clear who’s head or who’s gun. And that’s half the fun of the read, because you will find out.

Set in London, Max Iversson runs a security business. Then he makes a disastrous deal and is forced to go on the run. DS John Gallan is investigating the murder of a nightclub doorman. Both good men dealing with the fall out of bad actions. The question is who is going to cross the line first?

Iversson doesn’t mean to be a bad guy, it really is a rollercoaster ride reading him.

John Gallan has been described as ‘mundane’ in some reviews, but that’s actually part of why I like him. He was an everyman doing his job to the best of his ability, and he was able. He was also a good colleague, watch how he treats Tina Boyd.

The reader is instantly drawn in by the first-person narrative of this work. We switch between seeing things from Iversson’s and Gallan’s POV, but the story is so strong you don’t get confused as to who you are reading. Especially when you get to the one chapter that isn’t from either of them.  I mentioned this only because it doesn’t feel like it belongs in the book. While it’s a massive part of the story and crucial in that respect, perhaps this story could have been revealed in a different way. Also, there’s a lot of swearing, totally fits the POV of the character, as does the gore. While this didn’t put me off I can see how it might affect others.

Now, normally Simon Kernick books start fast and get faster. This starts fast, and it’s pacy enough, but not as pacy as others. That’s one of the reasons why I wouldn’t say this is the best offering, but it is an early show of Tina Boyd and set up her character nicely before she takes off in later books.

I found Simon Kernick’s books in the early 2000s and loved them instantly. Absolutely galloped through them and read them as they came out.

Book Review – The Long Good-Bye by Raymond Chandler

Blurb

Down-and-out drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead and he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to his only friend in the world: Philip Marlowe, Private Investigator.

He’s willing to help a man down on his luck, but later, Lennox commits suicide in Mexico and things start to turn nasty. Marlowe finds himself drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers and alcoholics in LA’s Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover.

Marlowe is sure Lennox didn’t kill his wife, but how many more stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth?

My Review

The iconic Marlowe gets caught up in the dealings of the rich. Terry Lennox is an unhappy man, face scarred terribly in the war, and worse scars deeper in his psyche. His ex-wife is rich and unfaithful, but he goes back to her, and when she’s killed, he runs away, with Marlowe’s help. A spell in prison doesn’t loosen Marlowe’s tongue any, but he’s released unscathed. Then another broad, rich and mean, walks through his door, with another case, keep her drunk writer husband sober to finish a book.

It’s all linked with misbehaving, misdemeanors and mobsters. And the way it links is incredible and so well woven, you can see why Raymond Chandler has survived the test of time.

My husband is a bit of a Chandler fan. That’s why I decided to read some of Chandler’s work. Well, that and a determination to read a wide variety of crime books. All the Chandler books in the house are my husbands, and I did watch the Elliot Gould film of this book.  Don’t like that piece of cinematography fool you, the book is easily ten times better.

It has to be remembered this is vintage noir, it’s not like a modern thriller which is all fast paced, adrenaline fueled action (well it is if you read Simon Kernick anyway). This is, in the nature of vintage noir, a slow burn. The atmosphere and attitudes of the time were beautifully crafted, though I suppose the attitudes were hard wired into Chandler as this was written as contemporary crime.

The way that the apparently separate storylines were all laid out for the reader and then at last brought together is masterful. Some of it I saw coming, other bits I didn’t, which is the way I like it. What was particularly interesting was the way Marlowe interacted with the police. As I often find, it is clear that police are fallible, and that fallibility is often what make Private Eye books so interesting. In this case, the failure to fully investigate one mystery leads to the impossibility of revealing the truth of another. A impossibility that Marlowe won’t accept.  And good on him.

Would I recommend this book?  Yes, particularly over the film.

Will I read more of Chandler? Yes, but when I’m in the right mood.