Roughly this time last year, the following appeared in a post on Crime Always Pays: “One last pertinent thought on what might well be the most important issue the crime fiction industry will have to face in the immediate future. To wit: has anyone else noticed Shy Al Guthrie’s (right) eyelashes? Like kitten’s whiskers, they are. Enough to make a Grand Vizier kick a hole in his stained-glass harem window.”Allan Guthrie is something of a favourite at CAP, but it’s not just his limpid eyes. Put simply, the guy’s a master of the modern noir. Don’t believe me? I can’t blame you. But maybe you’ll believe Laura Wilson over at The Guardian, writing on Guthrie’s latest, SLAMMER:
“Scottish writer Guthrie’s prose is a series of short, sharp shocks, reeking of the visceral brutality of the toughest contemporary noir …”The Scotsman likes it too.
To wit: “Allan Guthrie’s SLAMMER succeeds in brilliantly turning the genre on its head in a book as inventive and groundbreaking as it is magnificently written … With SLAMMER, Guthrie has written a superb novel that will leave you thinking hard about life for a long time afterwards, and there’s not much higher praise than that.”That second review, by the way, also contains a review of BEAST OF BURDEN by some arm-chancing ne’er-do-well called Ray Banks. A handsome cove, he’ll nonetheless have to get out the old eyelash-straightener if he’s to compete with Shy Al. Raymundo? Would it hurt to use a smidge of mascara once in a while? Think of your audience, man.
Like kitten's whiskers? LIKE??? Those are the real McCoy, I'll have you know.
ReplyDeleteI'll have you know that Guthrie spends his time ripping the whiskers off kittens purely to keep up with my NATURAL lashes. When I close my eyes, pal, it looks like I have a beard.
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