Sucker Punch
January 13th 2008 02:46
Last year I read an appalling 37 books... about two thirds of what I had achieved the year before that. This year I am aiming to knock over a clean 50 novels, and so it is with great satisfaction that I kick off 2008 (which should, hopefully, see this book blog resurrected properly) with the first novel of the season, a Canadian crime-mystery called Sucker Punch, sent to me by one of the lads from Dundurn Press.
Joe Grundy is an ex-middle of the road boxer now turned security guard. He heads up the security at the Lord Douglas Hotel, a high-class establishment that plays host to the cream of downtown Vancouver, Canada. Whilst juggling staff issues and a dead end social life, Grundy finds himself smack bang in the middle of a good ol' fashioned murder mystery with a touch of conspiracy about it. A local hippy has just inherited around half a billion dollars (snatching it out from the under the noses of a pair of very angry corporate charity organisations), and he makes no friends when he announces his plan to give it all away to the masses. Grundy figures it's his business when the hippy gets murdered at the hotel on his watch, and he sets about chasing the mystery, an outstanding bar tab and some staff who have gone AWOL.
The author of this novel, Marc Strange, is a character-actor and creator of some old TV series I'd never heard of (The Beachcombers). I'm not sure if this is his first novel or not, but I found it to be a very enjoyable, assured and engaging read. It's more remniscent of pulpish crime-mysteries in the vein of Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett than, say, more mainstream crime fiction by James Patterson or Patricia Cornwell, which suits me right down to my bones. There's an urban sweatiness in the writing and if I had to pick out what Strange's strongpoint is I'd say it's the characterisation... this book juggles a huge cast of supporting characters (many of whom I suspect will turn up again if other Joe Grundy mysteries get written) and not once was I stuck remembering who was who. Strange seems to possess a deft ability to portray all these varying players and low-lives from the many stratas of society - shifty businessmen, money-lending gangsters, dodgy security guards, vulture-like relatives, ambitious journalists, scumbag journalists, etc, etc - without any self-consiousness or irrelevance. And anchoring all this is the narrator, Joe Grundy himself, an amiable and humble protagonist who could easily carry a few more adventures should the situations that arise not be too contrived. It's refreshing to read one of these books where the main character isn't a detective or a policeman, and the plot and Grundy's involvement in it here is suitably realistic for the reader to play along and believe in it.
Anyway, if you're a fan of pulp fiction or engaging crime novels, then I'd easily recommend this book. If you're reading this from Australia though you'll probably have to order it in via your local bookshop or just look it up on Amazon.
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Comment by Pat
Books Are For Losers
About this book though, I' m not much of a crime reader at all. What is the best 'crime' book you've read Luke? I will find it and read it and review it.
Comment by Luke
Book Club
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett
The Grifters by Jim Thompson
Vodka Doesn't Freeze by Leah Giarratano
Sucker Punch by Marc Strange
and a couple of spy novels (if they count)
If we counted the spy novels, I'd say they were better, but all four of the ones listed above have been great. I'd say I enjoyed Vodka Doesn't Freeze in particular. Soon I will be reading The Broken Shore by Peter Temple, and I have a feeling that will be the best yet.
Comment by ehrenc