Sam Millar

E' un libro bello e strano.
Sembra più un diario, si vive man mano quel che capita all'autore, non c'è una narrazione di contorno che introduca gli avvenimenti.
Quello che racconta, la sua vita, è semplicemente paz-ze-sco.
Non direi, come dice la quarta di copertina, che ripercorra le tappe più importanti del conflitto tra inglesi e irlandesi, ma piuttosto che te ne faccia vedere delle parti con gli occhi di uno che ci stava nel bel mezzo.
La prima parte è veramente crudissima, il periodo della prigionia con tutto quello che ha subìto è agghiacciante, ma non manca di una certa qual ironia (non saprei come altro chiamarla), che forse è proprio quello che ha aiutato una parte di quelli che sono sopravvissuti a tener duro nella loro protesta.
Nonostante i temi trattati, l'ho divorata.
La seconda parte sembra un secondo libro, raccontato in modo diverso e molto meno crudo.
In ogni caso avvicente, dall'inizio alla fine.
Ho trovato diversi errori e ingenuità nella traduzione, ma l'adrenalina che ha accompagnato la lettura me li ha fatti superare senza problemi.… (mehr)

If you like noir, you’ll love this book.

Karl Kane, P.I. in the mold of Sam Spade, wakes up one morning only to discover a hand (minus a finger that a local cat was making off with.) He calls the police and figures that’s the end of it until his secretary and bedmate, the gorgeous (of course) Naomi mentions there’s a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer. Apparently there had been another hand found belonging to someone else. An abattoir plays a prominent role in the story.

Soon Kane is up to his eyeballs in a complex tale of vengeance and police corruption that had begun during the Troubles with the arson killing of three children. It’s set in Belfast just after the peace accords when many grudges have yet to be settled.

Solid story. Not sure what happened to the $20,000 though.… (mehr)

Black’s Creek – Dark and Brilliant

Black’s Creek by Sam Millar is a wonderfully dark crime thriller with a wonderful twist this is the noir genre at its best. This story is dark and haunting and thing of every parent’s nightmares when a predatory paedophile is living on the outskirts of the town. He is like the scary pied piper but worse and this is the story of his haunting the town like the worst of all evil characters.

Tom is a successful author living in New York having his breakfast with his wife as usual until he reads the New York Times’ headline telling of a crime that happened years ago in Black’s Creek was being reopened due to new DNA evidence. News that would make anyone jump for joy at the murderer finally being court. This is the story of three school friends, three children’s deaths and the investigation and murder of a paedophile.

Tom takes us back to when he was a teen with his school friends in Black’s Creek and how they spent one summer leading in to the following winter. While Tom was out skinny dipping with his friends Joey Maxwell commits suicide not able to cope with being a victim of Norman Armstrong, a paedophile whom the police cannot get enough evidence to take to trial.

Tom and his friends make a plan to kill Armstrong but fail to deliver on their plan through fear and being idealistic kids. They try not to talk about their failure and fall out. Tom falls in love with Devlin and they have a summer of love and she paints him naked. When Devlin is murdered Tom’s world falls to pieces and he wants to gain revenge on Armstrong who he blames. Somehow he gets acquitted when he eventually goes to trial and Tom’s world falls apart at the seams.

Tom and his father take the acquittal personally as he is the local sheriff and the town is pointing fingers at him. When a body is discovered in the local lake which the sheriff had searched a few days earlier a dead girl’s body is pulled out of the frozen lake, the sheriff is now a laughing stock.

Tom silently plans to kill Armstrong it becomes his raison d’être he feels that it is something that he needs to do. It is Tom who explains throughout the book what is happening and you can feel the darkness in his soul at this point in his life. It is also an example of you never forget your first love especially when Tommy looks at the picture Devlin painted of him so long ago.

This is a wonderful book a crime thriller noir at its best that is thrilling and seeing it through Tommy’s eyes as innocence is broken. There are some great twists in the book which deals evenly with the subject. Armstrong’s spectre looms large over the thriller as does the light of goodness from Tommy’s father. This is the classic page turning thriller which really is a must read from Sam Millar which proves he is Ireland’s master of the noir genre.… (mehr)