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susie_books2brl's review against another edition
3.0
I've read all Ian Rankin's books. He wrote this novel under the pseudonym of Jack Harvey. It won't ever be one of my favorites but I did enjoy if for the most part. I enjoy his John Rebus novels the most.
michael5000's review against another edition
4.0
A sometimes grisly but well-crafted piece of genre fiction. It's not exactly "detective fiction," but it adheres to the model closely enough to be satisfying for fans of articulate hard-boiled pulp. The Pacific Northwest setting of the back half is a pleasant treat for those of us from the region.
annebrooke's review against another edition
2.0
Goodness me, this is a too long and too wearisome crime thriller. There’s a lot of pursuing the criminals and running away from the good guys, or running away from the criminals and pursuing the good guys, depending on whose point of view you’re in at the time. Not that anyone is really good at all, by any measure. There are two leads – the private detective and the hit man – but neither is hero or villain. This of course is a very realistic approach to take, but it does mean that the reader roots for neither – or possibly both, but for me it was neither as I didn’t find either of them likeable or interesting.
I did quite enjoy the fact that the hit man was a haemophiliac though as that was a nice twist. But that’s as about as good as it got – though I do accept I’m probably not the prime target for this novel. It’s best classed as a boys-with-toys thriller. Because there are a lot of guns in all sorts of different scenarios and it was exhausting trying to keep up with the technicalities of them all. So in the end I didn’t bother. I didn’t bother much with the plot either as it was very clichéd and had – again – lots of different groups in different countries up to no good and running around a great deal. Sigh.
Really, by about a quarter of the way through, I was just glancing over the bare outlines of what might have been going on, and trying to finish the pesky beast as quickly as I could. There’s a girl (who is far more boring than she ought to be as the female lead) and a dead father, a journalist or several, various gun suppliers and some police. Please add your own plot as you expect it to be and you won’t be far wrong.
That said, Spike’s niece, Jazz, was great fun and I wished for more of her, but it was not to be, alas. To cap it all, the ending is the ultimate cliché to end all clichés and not worth the getting there.
I did quite enjoy the fact that the hit man was a haemophiliac though as that was a nice twist. But that’s as about as good as it got – though I do accept I’m probably not the prime target for this novel. It’s best classed as a boys-with-toys thriller. Because there are a lot of guns in all sorts of different scenarios and it was exhausting trying to keep up with the technicalities of them all. So in the end I didn’t bother. I didn’t bother much with the plot either as it was very clichéd and had – again – lots of different groups in different countries up to no good and running around a great deal. Sigh.
Really, by about a quarter of the way through, I was just glancing over the bare outlines of what might have been going on, and trying to finish the pesky beast as quickly as I could. There’s a girl (who is far more boring than she ought to be as the female lead) and a dead father, a journalist or several, various gun suppliers and some police. Please add your own plot as you expect it to be and you won’t be far wrong.
That said, Spike’s niece, Jazz, was great fun and I wished for more of her, but it was not to be, alas. To cap it all, the ending is the ultimate cliché to end all clichés and not worth the getting there.
wyemu's review
2.0
Readers of Rankin's Rebus series will find this novel an interesting change as the main character is a hit man by trade. While Michael Weston manages to take out the target he's been contracted to kill it would appear that he's been set up as the police arrive on the scene far too quickly. Things escalate as a private investigate, hired by a man whose daughter he killed by mistake, gets closer to catching him and he wants to find out who contacted him to kill the woman and, therefore, who could have set him up. While not as stylish as the Rebus novels Rankin is famous for this one is still worth reading for fans of his.
mattmatros's review against another edition
3.0
As far as action movies disguised as crime novels go, not bad! Could've been a tad more clever, but is redeemed somewhat by the real-world basis of some of the plot points revealed in the Afterword. I don't necessarily recommend this book, but you could do worse if you want to turn your brain off. Features a delightfully over-the-top "American" detective. It's fun to see how the Brits imagine us, especially during the early nineties (read: eighties hangover) free-for-all.
eowyn's review against another edition
2.0
I really like Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus books and his other novels have been pretty good, but this one just annoyed me the whole time I was reading it. There are two viewpoint characters: a British assassin and a New York PI who's chasing him. The assassin is clearly the hero, and while I like him better than the completely stereotypical fat, mean, lonely, drunken and drug-addled PI, I never cared much for him, girlfriend, an illegal arms dealer's daughter. There's too much focus on the different guns they use, they kill people and I didn't care, and then the payoff, even the final big one, was just ho hum.
lmurray74's review against another edition
4.0
not Rebus, but still an enjoyable read, with a twist you don't see coming at the end..great for a long commute..
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