DEADFOLK by Charlie Williams Serpent's Tail October
2004
It isn't the poshest job, but working as Head Doorman of
Hoppers Wine Bar & Bistro offers a certain amount of
prestige for Roystan Blake-a chance to flirt with some of the
birds, an occasional work-out of the muscles when a bloke
gets rowdy. Blake has spent his whole life in Mangel,
Britain's crappiest town; and it's rare that any of the
locals ever leaves. He has a few friends that he hangs with,
and he and his mates have a general loyalty to one another.
On the other end of the spectrum are the Munton family who
are almost like Mangel's underworld and with whom Blake has
frequent confrontations.
Blake, a decidedly lower class individual, is proud of his
job; so when he backs down in an encounter with one of the
Muntons, word gets out that he has lost his "bottle", i.e.,
that he's lost his courage. The reality is that Blake
believes this to be true and needs to get his bottle back.
He's been sloppy about taking care of himself for the past
few years, lost some of his heft, muscles gone to mush. You
see, he's been in a bit of a funk after the death of his
wife, who he was accused of murdering. But in an effort to
regain his courage and reputation, he gets himself into
another whole level of trouble after killing one of the
Munton brothers. From there, things deteriorate, and Blake's
problems escalate, with several more dead bodies being sent
to the local cemetery along the way.
The earlier part of the book is completely hilarious. Blake's
view of himself is completely at odds with the person that he
really is. There's a certain element of pathos to his
character, a kind of lovable and naļ¶„ loser who is mostly
interested in moving up at Hoppers Wine Bar & Bistro and
in driving his undependable Ford Capri 2.8i. Early on, his
weapon of choice is his head. "I were skilled in every
category of headbutt in the book. Straight, sidewinder,
piledriver-you name it, I'd swung it. The secret, right, is
to keep your neck relaxed and picture your swede like a
demolition ball. Mark your target-nose or cheekbone is
best-then swing that ball." And there's one specific headbutt
that has a real impact on his future. As the book progresses,
however, Blake starts to lose any semblance of control he had
over his own behavior. He goes around in a fog killing people
without really registering what he is doing. Giving Blake a
monkey wrench or a gun is not a good idea.
At first, I had a problem with the fact that the book was
written in the local Mangel dialect, and it took me quite a
while before I was able to get into the character's voice.
Once I did, however, I found being in his head to be a
riotous yet horrifying trip. There's no sophistication to
Blake, not much intelligence, so he operates pretty much on
an "act now, consider later" basis. As he says, "I'd be the
first to confess I wouldn't know a bright idea if it did a
shite in me pocket." Self-analysis and remorse are definitely
not going to be something you see in Blake's actions.
Over the course of the book, Blake disintegrates from a
likeable loser who has a certain appealing bravado into a
manic killing machine. I found the latter character hard to
take. I preferred the Befuddled Blake to the Beastly
Blake.
DEADFOLK is Williams' first book, and it's a completely
original work. Well plotted, great dialogue, fast paced with
touches of tenderness edging around the dark center, DEADFOLK
is a book that the reader who prefers noir over nice will
certainly appreciate. I know that I will be looking for
Williams' future books, as he shows the promise of great
things to come.
PS: For those of you who would like to visit Mangel, the
crappiest town in Britain, here is The Mangel Informer on the
Web: http://www.thisismangel.com/index2.html
Maddy Van Hertbruggen Crime fiction reviewer for:
- I Love a Mystery Newsletter: http://www.iloveamysterynewsletter.com/
- Reviewing the Evidence: http://reviewingtheevidence.com/
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 25 Sep 2004 EDT