Saturday 2 January 2016

PAUL D. BRAZILL - KILL ME QUICK (2015)


Synopsis/blurb……

We’re all lying in the gutter. But some of us are staring at the spaces between the stars...

Seatown may not have a lot going for it – apart from the Roy Orbison lookalikes and Super 
Seventies Special every Thursday night, of course – but it is at least the place Mark Hammonds calls home. And after a decade away, it’s the place he returns to when he has nowhere else to go.

From dead bikers to dodgy drug deals, from one downbeat bar to another, from strippers to gangsters and back again: the luckless former musician bounces from one misdeed to the next along with a litany of old acquaintances, almost as though he never left. And if only he can shake off everybody who wants to kill, maim or otherwise hurt him, maybe he could even think about staying.

After all, there’s no place like home, eh?

Praise for Paul Brazill:

“If you took Ken Bruen's candor, the best of Elmore Leonard's dialogues, sprinkled in some Irvine Welsh, and dragged it all through the dirtiest ditch in South London, the result will be something akin to Brazill's writing.” - Gabino Iglesias (author of Zero Saints and Gutmouth)

“Visceral, foul-mouthed and blisteringly funny, Paul D Brazill creates a sleazy underworld inhabited by dodgy London geezers, Geordie hard men and the occasional shark. Highly recommended.” - Lesley Ann Sharrock (author of The Seventh Magpie)

“A broad range of cultural strands come together in the melting pot and form a delicious stew of criminal adventure... The observations are sharp and the characters create small nuclear explosions as they collide with each other.” - Nigel Bird (author of Southsiders)

“Unashamedly entertains you while sticking two fingers right up in your stupid face.” - Ryan Bracha (author of Strangers Are just Friends You Haven’t Killed Yet)

“The brilliantly named characters, crackling dialogue and dark humour jump out.” - Keith Nixon (author of The Fix and I’m Dead Again)

Number Thirteen Press is publishing 13 crime novellas by 13 top crime authors, from November 2014.

It’s hard to think of anything original to say when it’s pretty much all been said above. Scrub that then – it’s impossible.

Larger than life characters…. Ella the Fella, Tony Trifle, Don Amerigo, Captain Cutlass - to name check a few.

A setting in a run-down seaside town that’s past it’s sell by date. Incidentally I have to congratulate the author for expanding my knowledge at the same time. I’d never heard of sea-coal washing up on a beach and getting dug up.

A slightly absurd plot that sees down on his luck musician, Mark Hammond returning home to his hometown and within days involved in disposing of a dead body from a caravan park after running an errand for Fat Roy. Biker gang Satan’s Souls might be wanting a few answers from Mark as to the demise of their leader Wolfe. 

Fantastic humour throughout, peppered one-liners that had me giggling like a little schoolboy….

“Remember that book from school? The Thomas Wolfe one?” he said.
“You can’t go home again, or something” said Craig. “Could send a glass eye to sleep, that one.”

A discussion about a local good time girl, Eileen……

”Had enough cock to make a handrail around the QE2. They don’t call her Come on Eileen for nothing.”

And sometimes there’s a nugget of truth that makes you pause…..

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression, eh?”


Enjoyable, satisfying, entertaining, funny with plenty of cultural references that had me looking back on the music of my youth with fondness. (I haven’t thought of the Leyton Buzzards and Saturday Night Beneath the Plastic Palm Trees in years.)

A top read.

4.5 from 5

I've read and enjoyed Mr Brazill before...... Guns of Brixton and 13 Shots of Noir

You can catch up with the man at his website - here. On Facebook here. On Twitter - @PaulDBrazill

Paul was kind enough to ping me a copy of this one. Check out other reads available from the publisher Number 13 Press here.

16 comments:

  1. Sounds like a perfectly fast-paced noirish story, Col. I will be reading some of Brazill's work early this year.

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    1. Prashant, you're in for a good time then! Happy days ahead...

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  2. Very glad you liked this one, Col. I think Brazill is a talented author, too. And, to be quite honest, I thought his work would appeal to you. Glad it did.

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    1. I've read both longer treatments and short stories from him and he's yet to disappoint!

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  3. Cheers very much for that. Really made my day. I never know if anyone is going to get my stuff but you certainly do.

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    1. Paul - you keep writing them - I'll keep reading them!

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  4. I was just reading about Brazill at his website and elsewhere, looking for his take on the definition of noir. So this was a pleasant surprise.

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    1. Synchronicity - Tracy, which means you should feel compelled to go and purchase and start reading immediately....haha!

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    2. Well, honestly I would go buy it, except I have a buying embargo through March of 2016. But I did put it on a list to consider in April. I do have A Case of Noir so maybe get to that soon. January reading is already filled. Isn't that sad? I have got to stop planning ahead.

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    3. I was teasing! I admire your restraint. This year I'm really determined to cut back on the amount I add to the library. The reality is I shouldn't add anything as its doubtful I'll get to many I already have.

      I have already earmarked January's reads myself and could if I thought about it plan for the next 6 months, just trying to catch up on some of the books I have been sent or have been meaning to review for a good while! It is good to break now and again and be a bit spontaneous though.

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  5. Well, you've got me convinced, Col:I just bought it - and got it for a mere 99p!

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    1. Hope you enjoy it. Can I ask please, are you the A.D. Garrett - author of Everyone Lies?

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  6. What a very arresting cover. Seriously, it caught my attention quickly. I'll give this one a look-see. Off to get a sample if available.

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    1. There's probably a clue there, something I missed at the time! Hope you enjoy if you can access some of it.

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  7. You are going to hammer him home to me, I will have to read him sometime.

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    1. Well worth a look and I'm sure you are more open-minded about this type of fiction than I am for GA writers.

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