Hard-boiled Marlowe is back
GEOFFREY WANSELL THE GOODBYE COAST by Joe Ide (W&N £16.99, 320 pp)
IT TAKES a brave author to reinvent an iconic hero, but acclaimed American writer Ide has managed it with Raymond Chandler’s unforgettable Philip Marlowe — and he’s done so with remarkable ingenuity and charm.
This Marlowe is not the original brought up to date, but a reimagining — a man struggling with his relationship with his police officer father, and yet as cynical as his 20th-century incarnation.
Marlowe accepts two missing person cases — one the stepdaughter of a fading female Hollywood star, the other a British child stolen from his mother by his father in Los Angeles.
The cases coalesce, as the star’s daughter has no wish to return to her belligerent mother, and Marlowe tries to work out what is for the best.
The sometimes ugly atmosphere of Hollywood is well captured, as are the supporting cast of Albanian gangsters, but it is Marlowe’s hard-boiled exterior concealing a tender soul that makes the novel wonderful.
THE LAST COMMANDMENT by Scott Shepherd
(Head of Zeus £18.99, 368 pp) NOT an entirely original idea — think the film Seven — this is engrossing nonetheless. A serial killer stalks London, targeting individuals he believes have broken the Ten Commandments, then he suddenly moves to New York.
Scotland Yard’s Commander Austin Grant — on the brink of retirement — follows the killer to the Big Apple, where the bodies pile up.
A priest at St Patrick’s cathedral in Manhattan is crucified, hard on the heels of the murders of a professor of ancient mythology, a sculptor of idols and the lead singer of The Blasphemers.
How do you track down a killer who has no links to any of his victims, and is working to his own bizarre agenda? After all, ‘Thou shalt not kill’ is the sixth commandment, yet he shows no sign of stopping.
Gory but gripping, Shepherd never allows the pace to slow, and the climax is suitably Old Testament.
A GOOD DAY TO DIE by Amen Alonge (Quercus £14.99, 352 pp)
THIS brutal but striking debut, from a Nigerian who moved to London as a teenager and is now training as a solicitor, reeks with authenticity.
It is crime-writing with a rap beat — fast, hard, unrelenting — yet it still manages to convey the truth about life on the mean streets.
The protagonist, Pretty Boy, has been away for ten years but is now back, with revenge on his mind. Determined never to be anyone’s patsy, he is prepared to do almost anything to survive.
But his original plans take a knock when into his hands comes a spectacular diamond bracelet stolen from one of London’s most feared gangsters — who wants it back, regardless of the price he may have to pay.
So Pretty Boy goes from being the hunter to the hunted, but that simply reinforces his resolve to survive.
Certainly not a novel for anyone with a weak stomach — it opens with a machete attack — the story’s honesty and impressive humanity shine through the violence.