One Man's Opinion: MORVERN CALLAR by ALAN WARNER

‘He’d cut His throat with the knife. He’d nearly chopped off His hand with the meat cleaver. He couldn’t object, so I lit a Silk Cut.’

The opening to Morvern Callar (US) is very strong. Every action and thought is noted. Each character has a special name. The buzz and the vividness almost creates the illusion that she’s speaking in a different language, like she’s just read A Clockwork Orange and is taking bites from it. Her boyfriend, He/Him/His, has killed himself in their flat and Callar reacts by doing nothing about it. She opens her Christmas presents, smokes a lot of Silk Cut and goes off to work in her local supermarket. There’s a hint that what follows will be something profound. A tale of disconnection and alienation in the age of the rave. Given the powerful reviews, I suspect that the profundity is there, it’s just that I didn’t really grasp it. Perhaps it was a little too cold and raw in places for my taste.

There are wild encounters and travels as Callar takes a journey that seems to be part nihilism and part self-destruct. She’s on the road. She lives a life-and-a-half. Her interactions with the people she meets and her surroundings are interesting and her life is packed full of experiences. What a cracking woman she is.

I found sections really engrossing and beautifully written and I think that the book has many parts that make the book worthwhile taking on. For me, however, I felt that the whole was less than those parts. Then again, I might just be an old man who’s  arrived to the part about twenty years too late. 

One Man's Opinion: THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC by LAWRENCE BLOCK

Last week I sat down to watch the movie A Walk Among The Tombstones with my wife and my dad. My wife didn’t manage to stay long – the level of violence that is suggested is high and so her early departure didn’t surprise me. My dad fell asleep for a while, but that’s got nothing to do with the quality of the film. I managed to stay for the duration and enjoyed my time with Liam Neeson et al. Overall, I’d say that it’s a pretty solid film. Neeson does a great job as Scudder and if you like action and detectives, this should work for you. Above all, I was reminded of how good a book Tombstones is. The Scudder series is really excellent and it wasn’t really a surprise to me that the film didn’t quite do the plotline justice.

During my holiday, I read a Scudder that was new to me called The Night And The Music (US). This one, a little like the film above, is something of a tangent from the main body of novels. It’s a collection of stories about the detective where he retells incidents from his past. They’re told in a fairly gentle style, as if been told over a drink in a bar somewhere after hours. It’s almost conversational and that works very well in terms of grabbing the attention. What you don’t really get is the meaty plot or the tension of a novel. In place of that, however, is a collection of rather playful and almost old-fashioned mysteries.

My own favourite was entitled The Merciful Angel Of Death. Scudder is hired by a nursing home to investigate a mystery visitor who has a knack of being the final companion of many of the dying. What I think this piece illustrates, apart from the high level of writing, is the general dexterity of Lawrence Block’s mind. He finds interesting plotlines in the strangest places. Other pieces involve the collection of counterfeit clothing from around the vendors of New York, a suicide and the murder of an old and very generous bag-lady.

For fans of Scudder, this is a really nice accompanying piece to have. It may not carry quite the weight of the novels, but it adds another dimension to the man. To those who haven’t been there yet, try these on for size. I reckon you’ll really enjoy them and if you do, I’d suggest diving right in with The Sins Of The Fathers (US) (you’ll thank me later, you really will).

One Man's Opinion: EIGHT BLACK HORSES by ED MCBAIN

‘Naomi was lying on the bed with a bullet hole between her eyes. The pillow under her head was very red.’

I enjoyed my first venture into the 87^th Precinct a while ago, but felt there were too many voices for my liking.

Eight Black Horses (US) was my second visit. I knew from the opening line (‘The lady was extraordinarily naked’) that I was going to love this one. What made this book so much more of a pleasure was that there was only one main thread to follow, the curious fascination of The Deaf Man with the detectives of the 87^th and especially one Steven Louis Carella.

The book starts with a woman’s body being found dumped in a local park. That is followed by a series of images sent to the department by The Deaf Man. It’s clear the criminal is up to something, it’s just that no one in the force can work out what.

There’s a huge amount to savour here. The angle of the arch-enemy versus the cops works really well because The Deaf Man is such a fantastic creation, mixing a sense of mischief with the mentality of a mastermind and a ruthless cold streak. It’s also a joy to get to know the detectives a little better, especially when their focus is so concentrated. There are some great scenes, many fantastic one-liners and there’s a mass of humour that contributes to the general tone. I also got a buzz from the images included with the text, a simple pleasure on each occasion one appeared.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and may have finally discovered why McBain has such an excellent reputation. I’ve already lined up a couple more 87^th Precinct reads and one of them has another run in with The Deaf Man. I’m really looking forward to those. 

One Man's Opinion: CROOKED ROADS by ALEC CIZAK

“Banks was built like a VW Bug set on its rear end.”

A feast of stories here. Crime may be the thing they have in common, but those crimes are presented in diverse forms. There’s some revenge, reactions to infidelity, a little double and some triple-crossing along the way. The inhabitants include deranged characters, alcoholics, drug-crazed delusionists and a few cold-blooded reptiles who never miss a trick. The combinations allow for a subtle social commentary and an acknowledgement that much of what occurs is a directly or indirectly related to disadvantage.

Occasionally there are slivers of hope, but they tend to be hidden within the cluttered minds of those who live within these pages.

There’s plenty to enjoy for the fan of the short story and, if you dig lines like this:

“The Mexican said: ‘What you want?’ He spit on the sidewalk in front of him like a border he dared us to cross.”

then you should definitely give Crooked Roads (US) a try. It's currently FREE to boot!

One Man's Opinion: GUNS OF BRIXTON by PAUL D BRAZILL

“He suddenly braked in front of a camping supplies shop advertising its January sale with the slogan NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCOUNT TENTS.”

Guns Of Brixton (US) fizzes along from the start when the gangster Half-Pint Harry has his brains blown out in a London lock-up. Of course, this isn’t good for Harry and it leaves his killer in a difficult position, especially given the Half-Pint’s importance. What follows is a genuine caper where an assorted bunch of characters go about their New Year celebrations in a variety of rather interesting ways.

Take Kenny and Big Jim as an example. They’re dressing up as women and heading off to rob a big jewellery shop. The assistant greets them as they enter:

“Morning ladies,” he beamed. Then he saw the Glock and his jaw dropped so much that you could have scraped the carpet fluff from his bottom lip.

This situation encapsulates a lot about the story. We have the cross-dressing thugs, the threat of violence and the hard-boiled humour that runs through the piece like words through a stick of rock.

To me, Brazill unashamedly brings together a broad range of cultural strands that I was bombarded with through the seventies and eighties. The style reflects so many aspects of my TV viewing – the Carry On jokes, Galton and Simpson, the caricatures of the villain and the common, the pub and the cafe, Michael Caine and The Sweeney, the slang and the banter and the pantomime.  These elements come together into the melting pot and form a delicious stew of criminal adventure. None of the style and mood would be of value if it weren’t for the author’s ability to craft a strong story where the adventure and action always hold the attention, the observations are sharp and the characters create small nuclear explosions as they collide with each other.

Guns Of Brixton has a very British flavour to it. I imagine that as it travels across the Atlantic it might make a few waves along the way but for those of you in the US who relish a good tale, this is a book that should be bought and wrestled with.

One Man's Opinion: NON-FICTION by CHUCK PALAHNIUK

The next sequence of reviews is likely to seem a little odd. While I was away in France, I decided to put my kindle away and read only work from the bookshelves of the house we rented. This proved to be a hit-and-miss idea and I rejected a good twenty books from their openings and the rest from dodgy titles and dreadful covers.  

Essentially, it means I read a number of books that I wouldn’t normally have chosen. It proved to be a pretty good experience and I’m glad I gave it a try. If nothing else, I realised just how many books I don’t like, something that’s never really occurred to me before.

What drew me to my first selection were the author and the amazing cover. Even with these to recommend it, I still entered Chuck Palahniuk’s Non-Fiction (US) with mixed feelings. True stories and journalistic pieces are things I often struggle to focus upon, especially in a magazine or newspaper format. If they’re of particular interest, I’ll usually hang in there, but even then they’re not something I really enjoy.  

The introduction to Non-Fiction is excellent and did a lot to get me in the mood. Among other things, it’s a really interesting look at writers and writing which offers some real insight. Then came the first piece, Testy Festy in the People Together section. I almost gave up at that point. This collection of observations and quotes from a wild sex festival didn’t really work for me. In some ways it felt like a test – get through this and you’ll be OK. To my mind it’s the least interesting piece in the collection and is an odd choice for an opener.

I’m glad I stuck with it in spite of this early experience. What followed were a series of really fascinating and often moving glimpses into closed worlds – castle building, demolition derby teams, screenplay conventions, wrestlers, body-builders, spiritualists and sub-mariners. The style of the pieces is interesting. They might seem to be collections of random facts thrown onto the page, but as the montages are layered and built they come together to offer revealing and moving images. Sometimes there are strings of quotes, at others there is poetic description. The author throws in personal tangents and offers a range of angles of reflection.

These personal asides continue into the section entitled Portraits. I was only aware of a few of the characters in the spotlight, but that didn’t matter. The pieces were intimate glimpses into the subjects’ lives and most of them hit the spot.

The final section rounds things off nicely as it brings to the fore the man who’s taken us on the previous journeys. There’s some overlap in the material, but rather than spoil things this generally brings a sense of rhythm to the collection. There’s also a lot of humour here and a rather touching openness from the author.

By the end, I realised that I’d mostly been gripped by the work as I might have been by a good novel. The world seemed more expansive than it had when I began and I liked the author even more by the end than I did at the start.

I don’t think you need to be a Chuck fan or a Fight Club fanatic to love this, you just have to be interested in people.

For me, with only a couple of exceptions, an unexpected hit.  

One Man's Opinion: BLUE RUIN

I haven't got any plot outlines to describe for Blue Ruin. To offer them might just spoil the huge amounts of pleasure you'll find if you watch. 

This is a terrific film and a really great example of story-telling. It lives in the moment and isn't ever uncluttered by excess baggage or unnecessary histories. Everything is kept simple and yet the quality is maintained at a high level. To my mind, it's a piece that should inspire writers to write better. If that's you and you've not already seen it, give it a go. I reckon you'll get more than an evening's entertainment for your money.