Monday, July 21, 2008

Nobody Move, This Is A Review: Ken Bruen on PAYING FOR IT

Galway’s adopted son and sometime sex-god Tony Black (right) drops us a line to give us a sneaky and ultra-exclusive peek at the Emperor of Galway Ken Bruen’s full review of PAYING FOR IT, the entirety of which runneth thusly:
PAYING FOR IT might just be the most aptly titled novel of the year.
  Rarely has a title worked on so many levels.
  Gus lives in an Edinburgh far from any tourist brochure of this genteel city.
  Nothing gentle here.
  Gus is fucked, in every way which hurts, bumped from his job as a reporter, losing his beloved wife to divorce and a more-than-lethal obsession with a whisky bottle.
  He agrees to investigate the death of the son of his surrogate father-figure, his own father and Gus being embroiled in a very love / hate battle.
  And phew, does he ever buy into trouble – his previous blunders, smacking politicians in the mouth, are about to pale when he begins to dig into this case.
  East European gangsters will be breathing down his neck in a very forceful way.
  And nothing is quite as it seems.
  The last fifty pages contain shock on shock.
  The writing is a joy, in your face, with that wondrous dead-pan humour that only the Celts really grasp.
  The narrative blasts off the page like a triple malt.
  We can only pray that Gus is already preparing his next outing.
  This is one adrenalin-pumped novel that is as moving and compassionate as it is stylishly written. – Ken Bruen
Nice. Meanwhile, it’s still not too late to enter our freebie giveaway competition this week (see below), featuring – yep, you guessed it – Tony Black’s PAYING FOR IT, in which, ironically enough, you get the book … without paying for it!!! Oh, how we laughed. And then we stopped.

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Declan Burke has published a number of novels, the most recent of which is ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL. As a journalist and critic, he writes and broadcasts on books and film for a variety of media outlets, including the Irish Times, RTE, the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Independent. He has an unfortunate habit of speaking about himself in the third person. All views expressed here are his own and are very likely to be contrary.