MARK WILSON - HEAD BOY (2013)

Synopsis/blurb.....

It's not easy being Head Boy.

Follow Davie Diller for seven days as he navigates his way through his turbulent life. A scheming bastard in and out of school, Diller screws, drinks, snorts, cons and kills his way through the Lanarkshire underworld and attempts to survive the attention of his local drug-lord, Hondo, who's less than impressed by Diller's growing debt and status; He's also having a busy week at school.

A brutal and wickedly funny novella inspired by The Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch Up’ music video, Irvine Welsh's "Filth" and by John Niven's 'Kill your Friends'.

Praise for Head Boy:

"His Diller creation is in equal measures compulsive and repulsive." - Ryan Bracha, author of Tomorrow's Chip Paper and Paul Carter is a Dead Man.

“The main character pulls off the ultimate deception that even the most observant reader does not fully comprehend until the very end.” – Craig Furchtenicht, author of Dimestore Bandits.

Another fast-paced read from another entertaining Scottish author - Mark Wilson.

Head Boy introduces us to Davie Diller. Diller is the son of a policeman but has no regard or respect for the law. We follow his adventures around Lanarkshire. 

Davie deals drugs for Hondo, the local crimelord, but has ambitions. Hondo needs to reign him in and keep him in his place while still benefiting from his usefulness. A six-figure cash demand allied with an impossible deadline offers Davie the possibility of a less than friendly meeting with Hondo's slow-witted but brutal son Lionel.    

Sorting that one out, whilst balancing life at school and trying not to get further onto Mr Bowie's shit-list will exercise our Head Boy's juggling abilities to the max. Bowie, resplendent with handlebar moustache and ginger toupee, is an ex-army, old school teacher, who sees through Davie's veneer of respectability. Davie's a scrote and Bowie knows it and it's his life's work to reveal all to everyone.

Factor into the equation, some parental concerns as well. Davie's father has been hearing a few rumours down at the station that wee Diller junior is involved in some unsavoury business with Hondo.   

Fast, funny, engaging, enjoyable, crude - sexual references and a bit of toilet humour, brutal, violent, but extremely readable. I kind of felt the violence had comedic undertones so whilst our Head Boy is not a good person, you can't help but enjoy spending time in his company and rooting for him to overcome his various obstacles. The support cast offer great entertainment also, especially Bowie.

Mark Wilson springs a conclusion that had me shaking my head at the author's audacity.

4 from 5

Head Boy is the first in Wilson's Lanarkshire Strays trilogy - Bobby's Boy and Naebody's Heroes complete the set. 

The author has more recently been putting out books under the pseudonym of C. P. Wilson. Ice Cold Alice is his latest.

Our author's website is here. Catch him on Facebook here and Twitter - @bellshillwilson

Read in April, 2017

Published - 2013

Page count - 234

Source - purchased copy

Format - Kindle

GARETH SPARK - SNAKE FARM (2015)

Synopsis/blurb……

Dark yarns, Brit Grit, Country Noir, crime, horror, thriller and real western cowboy stories in this short story collection where every tale packs a mind-crunching punch.

A short story collection from Gareth Spark that I know I enjoyed, but which 3 weeks plus after reading I’m struggling to recall. I guess that the difference between stories and a novel, even with a crap one the chances are you’re going to remember something about plot, characters or setting.

So flicking back through on the kindle…….19 stories in all – and a bit of ground covered.

Crowbait ….excellent dark tale of the old west, with a heart-rending pay-off

Demon's Road…..the old west again,

The Yank ….London in the war, a Yank, gangsters, a girl, murder and a gun-fight

Blood Heart ….. She looked into the sun setting over my left shoulder, then back at me and smiled. She wore a white vest top that burned bright against dry thunder clouds lowering over the grassland behind her, and her blue eyes were open to the red heart of the sun's death; it danced over her skin, making her something at once golden and lost, something I knew I would remember forever.

Kin ……. card games, losers, family, poor decision-making

Rundown Dog ….haunting, bare knuckle fighting, an aftermath and consequences for family.

Snow, Sky and Pines …… a fractured family

One Bullet…… a gunfight down Mexico way

Five Feet Into The Grave ……..a fire, a girl, an enraged bar owner, and gunshots

Regal King Size ……. a couple of dudes, a girl, a guitar and some night visitors with a blade – a bit of a puzzle this one

Red Spanish Night …… a women uses her charms to rid herself of her husband

Ghosts ……….intriguing start….. I was sure Tommy had killed his Dad that morning, but I wasn't going to let that ruin our day; the old bastard probably deserved it more than anybody else knew.

The Black …… bouncers and bruises, some Middlesbrough mayhem and a bit more

Coming Through The Dark …… drugs, a car crash and family

American Tan …. a robbery goes wrong, the consequences

The Passeig Miramar ….. a doomed relationship

The Beach And Hot With It..... a troubled holiday

The Wild Hunt.... a strange girl, feuding neighbours, a stranger outcome

Hostile Powers..... a deadly virus, on the run, and hunted

Bone Creek .... Cheyenne Indians, a massacre, a reporter.

 

Spark has a gift for language. There's some poetic prose in this diverse collection. A few stories missed the mark (or more likely went over my head), but the vast majority were on-point, with a couple of stand-out stories - albeit after refreshing my memory - Rundown Dog and Bone Creek were my personal favourites. 

4.5 from 5

Gareth Spark is on Facebook here.

Read in April, 2017

Published - 2015

Page count - 128

Source - purchased copy

Format - Kindle

BRENDAN GISBY - THE BOOKIE'S RUNNER (2013)

Synopsis/blurb....

Bob Dylan wrote the classic song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and thereby unforgettably marked the passing of an otherwise insignificant character in the movie "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid".

Brendan Gisby has written this utterly beautiful novella to honour the short life of his father, a man of seemingly as little significance.

The story is narrated with haunting subtlety, rhythm and depth of feeling by his teenage son as he takes a bus ride back to school for the first day of a new term, where he will have to announce his father's sudden death and deal with the resultant reactions without bursting into tears. He also has to come to terms with the fact that, on reflection, there is a huge amount he doesn't know about his father and that all he is really left with are snippets of personal memories.

Make no mistake, THE BOOKIE'S RUNNER is a modern masterpiece. In writing it, Brendan Gisby has not only honoured his father, he has ennobled him.

An enjoyable read with Brendan Gisby's emotional account of his father's life, drawn from his childhood memories.

Shared experiences of a man he loved but didn't have the chance to really get to know. There's the pain and love and resentment and anger that is present in all families.

The Gisby's were poor. The father worked a couple of jobs while the mother exhibited a blatant disregard for budgeting. Money was spent faster than it was earned. We join Brendan and his father searching the beach for Forth Bridge money thrown off the passing train by passengers for good luck.
Scrubbing the coins later at home and the tsk'ing of his mother, with his father proclaiming there's no shame in being poor.

Other memories......... a gardening job with his father and the humiliation Brendan felt at his treatment by the lady of the house and the innate understanding his father had for his feelings; the raging toothache and pain his father felt and the "miraculous" finding by his sister of the money to pay for treatment and the days as a bookie's runner, filling in for his dad while he lay in a hospital bed; finally the end and the passing of his father and the way he dealt with adversity.

3.5 from 5

Brendan Gisby has been read before - The Burrymen War.

He is on Facebook here and on Twitter - @twistedfoot   

Read - April, 2017
Published - 2013
Page count - 90
Source - purchased copy an Amazon FREEBIE
Format - Kindle

STEVE FINBOW - DOWN AMONG THE DEAD (2014)

Synopsis/blurb.....


"The brilliantly breathless, brutal and lyrical story of a retired IRA gunman facing up to his past."

Some lies we live. Some truths we allow to die.

London, 2008. An old man, Michael, sees out his final days sustained by Guinness and talk of the old country. But some memories won’t go quietly to the grave. Some mistakes are not erased by time. And no matter how hard he tries to forget, there’s always someone trying to dig up the skeletons of the past.

Belfast, 1988. The height of the Troubles. Michael is a bagman, a messenger, a go-between, called on to perform one last little job for the IRA. After that, perhaps he can start to patch his life back together. After that, perhaps he can build a future for himself and his family.

Just one last job...

Down Among the Dead is a story of trouble and the Troubles, and a violent collision of past and present in the life of one man.

"An examination of regret and self-destruction. Down Among the Dead is a murky read with flashes of hard-hitting clarity. This is no Micksploitation shoot-em-up. It aims for better and hits its mark. Touché, Mr Finbow." -Gerard Brennan, author of Undercover and Wee Rockets.

"Steve Finbow has done a brilliant job with this story. This is sharp and bold writing that is populated punchy dialogue and crisply drawn characters. It’s a wonderful voice that is at once sympathetic and pathetic and it’s one that’s very easy to spend time with.Very highly recommended." -Nigel Bird, author of Smoke and Southsiders.

Another compelling read from Number 13 Press

An old IRA man lives out his days in exile in London bedsit-land. An empty life running down the clock......avoiding his landlady, twice-daily trips to the pub, and a few pence squandered at the bookies is the routine. A few friends and acquaintances in his watering hole and a head full of memories and regrets.

Our chapters alternate between the 80s and the life Michael had in Belfast, and the life he doesn't have 20 years later.

1988 - his family already having left the scene and Michael is still involved with the paramilitaries, somewhat reluctantly. He's needed for a job - one of the most high profile incidents of the Troubles as it happens - Gibraltar. Not one than went well from a Republican viewpoint.

I am out of breath and slightly drunk and I stop to look at the outline of the Rock darker against the night sky. I am waiting. I am waiting for three people. I am waiting for three people to cross from Spain. To cross from the neutral zone into this British mockery. This grasping at past triumphs. This sad hope of returning glory. I am who I am and all I have ever amounted to standing here alone waiting to observe unobserved for a cause I no longer and have never fully believed in, under orders from a man I no longer and probably never did trust. I am without my wife and daughter waiting to see what unravels whether it be the pale drift of nothing or the sharp tang of violence.

2008 - London. No going home after Gibraltar and 20 years on there's a bit of distance from the past.

One careless night.....too much beer, a bit of drunken romanticizing and boasting one night about the boyos and the good old days into the wrong ears. A few Rebel songs and tall tales about gun-running and cemeteries and funerals and shoot-outs and dead soldiers. Loose lips sink ships, a knock at the door......

Tense, topical - if you're Irish and have an interest in the recent past, gripping. Very, very good.

5 from 5

My first time reading Steve Finbow. He has written a few other things - Nothing Matters: A noir Love Story and Balzac of the Badlands, plus some non-fiction.

His website/blog is here and he is on Twitter  - @stevefinbow

Read in April, 2017
Published  - 2014
Page count - 125
Source - purchased copy
Format - Kindle

MARCH 2017 - FILMS +TV

March saw two cinema trips, a short crime film from You Tube, a bit of intrigue and some condensed series viewing with Tom Hardy stalking around Ye Olde London in a big hat, and the much anticipated start of Broadchurch series 3!

The Last Job (2014)

Thanks to John Grant of Noirish for the tip-off on this one. 25 minutes short and and a bit of a Probert family production with four of them involved in this one. John's post is here and tells you more than I could ever hope to. A worthwhile watch

Adam is a police officer and loving husband. When his wife Jane is diagnosed with cancer he makes a deal with corrupt medical scientist Dr Redgrove who he has been hunting for years to use his research to save Jane in exchange for his own life. Adam fakes his own death to work for Redgrove as an assassin, after years working for him he is given his last assignment which is to kill his wife's new husband who is a medical scientist opposing Redgrove's research.

Taboo (2017) 

I read a scathing review of this series - to the effect that it mainly consists of Tom Hardy skulking around London in a tall, black hat and Jonathan Pryce telling someone to fuck off once a week.

I kind of get where they were coming from, but as I like Tom Hardy and Jonathan Pryce I could enjoy watching this one. Stephen Graham (Combo - This is England) and Tom Hollander (Corky from The Night Manager) also feature.

It was a bit slow in places and I can't claim to have totally understood the plot, especially the weird brother-sister-drowning in the water-shagging-mystical-occult type weirdness but it was incredibly dark. Hardy an adventurer sticking it to the powerful East India Company and the Prince Regent. 

Taboo is a British television drama programme produced by Scott Free London and Hardy Son & Baker for BBC One and FX. The show premiered on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2017, followed by the United States premiere on FX on 10 January 2017. The programme was renewed for a second series in March 2017.

It was created by Steven Knight, Tom Hardy, and his father, Edward "Chips" Hardy, and is based on a story written by Tom and Chips Hardy. The eight-part series, set in 1814, begins with James Delaney (Tom Hardy) returning to England after twelve years in Africa with fourteen stolen diamonds, following the death of his father and as the war with the United States is nearing its end.

Broadchurch - series 3 (2017)

David Tennant - Olivia Colman - AMAZEBALLS! Disturbing and uncomfortable viewing in places as our intrepid pair investigate the rape of a woman at a birthday party. Plenty of suspects, including Charlie Higson (The Fast Show) and Lennie Henry - who would have thought they could produce such compelling straight man performances. Gripping - and to be concluded in April!

The third and final series of the British crime drama Broadchurch began airing on the ITV broadcast network in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2017. Set three years after the previous series, the eight-episode series focuses on the sexual assault of a local middle-aged woman in the fictional, close-knit coastal town of Broadchurch in Dorset, England.^[1]

Broadchurch was conceived as a trilogy, the second series was only announced on 22 April 2013 as series one ended, the third part being announced at the end of the second series.^[2] The return features series stars Olivia Colman and David Tennant and many of their co-stars from the first two series.

Denial (2016)

A trip to the flicks and some top drama with Timothy Spall, Rachel Weisz and Tom Wilkinson in a true tale of a libel battle between a holocaust denier and a Jewish American author. All three give fantastic performances. Not a film you could forget in a hurry really.

Denial is a 2016 British-American historical drama film directed by Mick Jackson and written by David Hare, based on Deborah Lipstadt's book History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier. It dramatises the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case, in which Lipstadt, a Holocaust scholar, was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving for libel. It stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall, Andrew Scott, Jack Lowden, Caren Pistorius and Alex Jennings.

La La Land (2016)

Back to my local library theatre with my wife the day after watching Denial and a bit of lighter fare this time. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one too much but was pleasantly surprised. I do like Ryan Gosling and I enjoyed Emma Stone's performance in The Help. I must admit to a touch of sadness at the alternate outcome-life path scene - what the hell is wrong with me?

A jazz pianist falls for an aspiring actress in Los Angeles.

MARCH 2017 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

Another cracking month's reading and another 11 books enjoyed.

March's book of the month!

Verge Le Noir - Desperados (2016) (4)

Thomas Pluck - Bad Boy Boogie (2017) (4.5)

Simon Maltman - More Faces (2017) (4)

Paul D. Brazill - Too Many Crooks (2017) (4.5)

Bill Crider - Piano Man (2014) (4)

Mick Herron - The List (2015) (4)

Gerard Brennan - Wee Danny (2013) (5)

Ron McMillan - Bangkok Belle (2016) (4)

Mark J. Newman - In for the Kill (2016) (4.5)

Mark Rogers - Red Thread (2016) (4.5)


Friedrich Durrenmatt - The Pledge (1958) (4.5)

Book of the month - Gerard Brennan - Wee Danny - the month's only 5 STAR READ!

5 of the 11 rated 4.5 STARS, and the other 5 read rated 4 STARS,

More useless trivia......

11 different authors.

4 of the 11 were new-to-me authors........Simon Maltman, Mark Rogers, Ron McMillan and Friedrich Durrenmatt


7 authors have been enjoyed before.... Paul D. Brazill, Mick Herron and Verge Le Noir - more than once.

I still have unread books from 6 of these on the shelf, in the tubs or on the Kindle.

Gender analysis - no surprises here - 11 male reads, ZERO female


I think 4 authors hail from the US, 3 authors are English, 2 from Northern Ireland, 1 from Scotland and 1 from Switzerland

All 11 were fiction reads,

1 was a collection of short stories, 1 was a short story read that has been published on its own.

10 were published this decade - 3 from this year, 4 from last. Only one book pre-dated this decade - Durrenmatt's The Pledge from 1958, though it was a modern re-issue I read.

2 of the 11 books were pre-owned - 2 came via the publisher, 6 from the authors, 1 was a Net Galley read.

Favourite cover? Thomas Pluck - Bad Boy Boogie




















Mick Herron's The List is my second favourite cover.


My reads were this long - 184 - 352 - 158 - 128 - 17 - 112 - 71 - 261 - 67 - 172 - 160

Total page count =  1682 (1608 in February)

1 < 50,
2 between 51 < 100,
6 between 101 < 200,
1 between 201 < 300,
1 between 301 < 400,
0 > 400 pages

Thomas Pluck's Bad Boy Boogie was the longest @ 352.

MARK J. NEWMAN - IN FOR THE KILL (2016)

Synopsis/blurb......

Malkie Thompson's out of favour, and this time Glasgow Crime Boss McAlister wants him gone. There's no turning back, he's sent for Baxter the freelance cleaner and go to guy for the underworld. Baxter's non affiliated, that's how he likes it and that's how it's staying. He doesn't sleep anymore because his past still haunts him. He vowed never to return, but he’s broke, and owes Callaghan's Newcastle firm 20K. He's out of choices, if he misses the deadline they're going after his family.

It's time to take out the trash.

In For The Kill is the second in series of the Crime Syndicate thrillers, and leads on from the Amazon #1 Bestseller Violence in the Blood. The setting is Glasgow Scotland 1987.

Second time around for me with Mark J. Newman following on from January's reading of Violence in the Blood. Reviewed here.

Probably not a read that will appeal to everyone, we have a tale of violence - fairly graphic and a cast of characters with few redeeming features among the lot of them. That said, I really, really liked it.

Gangsters, illegal gambling, bare-knuckle boxing, an unpayable debt, a dispute in Glasgow with a parting of the ways between employer and employee and a call for the clean-up guy.

Really cleverly constructed in the way it ties in with the first in the series. I'm looking forward to the next installment in this series. Newman packs a hell of a lot of action, story and character history into this one and gets the job done in less than 70 pages.

4.5 from 5

Mark J. Newman has written one further tale in his Crime Syndicate series, which I hope to read later this year - Walk Amongst the Dead.

He has his website here. He's also on Facebook here and catch him on Twitter - @marknewmanwrit1

Read in March, 2017
Published - 2016
Page count - 67
Source - from author after signing up to his website newsletter
Format - Kindle