truecrime
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'Sparklingly witty, immensely profound . . . it should be read as a matter of urgency'
Guardian
'A beacon-bright satire . . . a literary triumph'
Metro
A blistering take on Cool Britannia and London's underbelly in the 1990s, the third novel in Jake Arnott's loose trilogy following The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers.
It's 1995, and crime is the new cool. Actress Julie wants none of it as she comes to terms with her hidden criminal roots. But her public-school boyfriend is going all mockney and writing the script of his 'classic British gangster movie'. Meanwhile, 'Geezer' Gaz, wannabe villain, is losing control as he preys on the Essex rave scene. And sixties gang boss Harry Starks is back to haunt them all . . .
New lads meet old lags, celebrity villains mix with media types and Cool Britannia is stripped bare in wickedly sardonic fashion. Welcome to Cruel Britannia.
'Arnott's clever, style-conscious book is brutally authentic, yet at the same time ironically "knowing"'
The Sunday Times
'Arnott is both witty and gritty'
The Telegraph
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Talk about antiheroes: the three narrators of this novel of London's gritty underworld are set on murder, revenge and larceny. Tony Meehan is a washed-up crime journalist currently ghosting the memoir of Eddie Doyle, "ewel thief, bank robber, known associate of most of the major gangland faces," who's just out of prison after serving time for his role in a heist of 15 million in gold, most of which was never recovered. Julie McClusky, the daughter of a murdered gangster, has become a middle-class actress but she's also searching for her father's killer under the guise of working on her boyfriend's movie about London criminals. Shady businessman Gary "Gaz" Kelly has always modeled himself on "illains and gangsters. The Kray Twins. Harry Starks. Flash bastards. Legends." Unlike the Kray Twins, Harry Starks is Abbott's creation (last seen in 2001's Long Firm); he's the supposed mastermind of the bullion theft, the possible key to the whereabouts of the gold and Julia's number one suspect. When Starks is spotted at Ronnie Kray's funeral, the search for him begins in earnest, and that search, as well as the crimes uncovered in its wake and committed during its progress, dominate the rest of the book. Arnott's plotting is intricate and his prose hard-edged, made more so by his atmospheric use of Cockney and slang and his close-up look at frightening but human villains.
