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Friday, 30 November 2012

JIM NISBET - LETHAL INJECTION (1987)


Blurb.....
The gritty noir cult classic is now back in print - and the first of nine Nisbet books from Overlook!

Jim Nisbet's cult classic Lethal Injection, one of the first Black Lizard Books originals, has been out of print in the United States for an unforgivably long time. Overlook is remedying that with this paperback - the first of nine reissues that will make up a Nisbet revolution.

It's about as noir as you can get. In a bleak Texas prison Royce, an alcoholic doctor administers Bobby Mencken's last 'high,' convinced that the convicted killer was innocent. When Royce's marriage crumbles he takes off for Dallas to search for the real killer.

Of Nisbet, Germany's Die Welt wrote, 'Neither Norman Mailer nor Truman Capote has in their writing been able to produce such an intensity as Nisbet has achieved.' With sharp humor and a poet's ear for language, Nisbet's world may be bleak, but it is frighteningly real. Overlook is proud to bring him to a new generation of readers.
My first taste of this author and someone who I will be returning to in the future. (I don’t have a choice I have a stack of his books in the attic!)
Lethal Injection is short, sharp, dark and funny; following Franklin Royce, an alcoholic prison doctor’s journey to discover the real killer behind the crime that his most recent patient was convicted of. Mencken; who Royce believes to be innocent, won’t be requiring further treatment once Royce has done his $600 of dirty work.
Royce with marital and financial woes usually seeks respite in the bottom of a whiskey bottle, but shoots for some level of redemption by trying to uncover the truth, without abandoning his whiskey.  Catching up with Mencken’s former partners in crime; Eddie, a low-life sociopath, and a junkie ex-girlfriend with a penchant for dirty sex  before, during and after getting high. Royce with his Gladstone bag full of morphine and his constant bottle descends into a haze of crime, sex, drugs and squalor while trying to avenge Mencken.
Nisbet won’t appeal to all readers but if you enjoy a roll in the gutter and want a view on the seamier side of inner-city America, Nisbet’s the man.
Hopefully this book and Overlook’s plans to reprint some of his previous work will bring to the attention of a wider audience.
5 from 5 – highly recommended!
I bought this new a couple of years ago.

5 comments:

  1. Sounds like a really intriguing book Col. Nice review. I'm adding it to my TBR list. Thanks.

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    1. Craig thanks for stopping by. It was one of my best books of 2012 and I think it's well worth a read. I'm a bit annoyed at myself for not getting back to Nisbet in the intervening two and a half years! Hope you enjoy it when you get there!

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  2. This is a Nesbit I hadn't heard of before, Col - thanks. And certainly sounds a very interesting premise. Not sure it's up my street, but I'm really glad you liked it as well as you did.

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  3. ...Or Nisbet, even... *blush*

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    1. No problem Margot. Not for everyone, agreed.. I think he's based in San Francisco, so maybe we'll find you another title a bit more to your liking as the logging continues.

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