Monday 11 August 2008

Colman's Roundup - Keepin' it Swift and Simple

Colman Keane, hard core bookworm, sent me a few thoughts on his reading for the month of July. I figured it couldn't hurt to share these brutally honest opinions with you fine folk.

DAVE WHITE – WHEN ONE MAN DIES………….debut PI novel

CHESTER HIMES – A RAGE IN HARLEM………..yer man McKINTY is big on Himes and it was pretty good…….definitely one to read more of

CLARENCE COOPER JR – THE SYNDICATE……another black jailbird author like Himes……..also a dope fiend to boot…..not the best book I’ve ever read.

PINCKNEY BENEDICT – TOWN SMOKES……hillbilly, backwoods-Virginian short stories

JJ CONNOLLY – LAYER CAKE………..funny and violent tale of a drug dealer………still got the film with Daniel Craig to watch yet

ANDREW NUGENT – THE FOUR COURTS MURDER……..Irish monk author, quirky tale but he hasn’t got me gushing over it

DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI – SEVERANCE PACKAGE…….hot young crime writer from Philly……not his best book in my opinion

JOEL ROSE – KILL KILL FASTER FASTER……….down and dirty tale of a former felon

KEVIN SAMPSON – AWAYDAYS………tale of a Tranmere footie yob and his search for identity and meaning after his mum dies, absolutely knocked me out……..sad, thought provoking and absolutely hilarious……….my better half nearly booted me out of bed cos I was roaring!

3 comments:

adrian mckinty said...

Awaydays is good. Tranmere were always the poor relation in Merseyside. That's what brought me to the book. Wouldn't say that I cried though.

colman said...

Adrian,
I was in absolute bits, when I read a couple of passages, not wanting to post spoilers - not that anyone's gonna pick a book up on my say so - just enough to say Tom Baker and when our man's at a party and his girlfriend interrupts him........I laughed like a fucking drain!
A bit of judicious editing of some of my comments from Gerard..which is just as well as some of you might have been eating !
Himes, Sampson...definitely need to follow up on

Gerard Brennan said...

Adrian - Think I'll pick up a copy of Awaydays at some point in the future. Sounds like my kind of book.

Colman - As much as I believe in freedom of speech, sorry, but I didn't want to traumatise anybody. Ye sick puppy.

gb