The shop is everything to him - always neat and tidy, safe and reliable, the rental DVDs carefully categorised, alphabetised and memorised. He thinks he knows his customers, until the bloodstains begin to appear - on grubby banknotes, on porn DVDs, and on the shop's fresh new carpet. Then the girl comes into his life, green eyes and fresh scarlet slashed beneath her thin cotton blouse. He wants to rescue and protect her. He wants to be with her. Forever. Murky and disturbing, "9987" is a jagged, tragic crime story set in a disturbing, uncaring world where only three things are constant: fantasy, loneliness and love. 'Gripping, cinematic, voyeuristic. A delightfully disturbing debut' - Caroline Smailes ("Black Boxes", "In Search of Adam").
9987
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Book Description
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Product Description
About the Author
Nik Jones is a teacher and occasional barman from County Durham. After being asked politely to leave Canada had little option but to attend Bath Spa University and study Creative Writing and Media Communications. It was here he started this, his first novel.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By J. Warren
Format:Paperback
...the pages of this very fine debut novel. It's a dirty read. Besmeared with blood, bodily emissions and general voyeuristic misery, 'He' our narrator, is like a shambling Mickey Rourke in the film 'Angel Heart' who finds his way to Hell via Robert De Niro - like you do...except 'He' is already in Hell, but keeps on descending. And love, love will only tear him apart. This is a repulsively funny book. Well done Mr Jones.
Mr Jones writes like William Burroughs meets Colin Bateman in Consett.
Mr Jones writes like William Burroughs meets Colin Bateman in Consett.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Dee J Kirkby
Format:Paperback
9987 kept me enthralled from start to finish.
I now understand why Caroline Smailes referred to it as 'Cinematic'. This is one to watch and I mean that quite literally. I wouldn't be surprised if this book was made into a movie in the next few years.
The main character is most endearingly disturbed. I know such a thing should be impossible but I challenge you to read the book without thinking the same thing...well for the first half of the novel anyway. I blame Nik Jones's skill at luring the reader into initially believing that his main character is simply a diligent worker, confused, obsessive but generally a well intentioned young man.
Eventually his darker side is revealed but by then the reader has already fallen under the spell of his gentle 'mommy's boy' alter ego. By the last chapter he is clearly, irredeemably and unlovabley psychotic. Even then Nik Jones still managed to shock me with the ending to 9987, perhaps I am too gullible or perhaps I'm not. You'll have to buy a copy and make your own mind up.
I dare you to spend an evening in after reading this without making sure your doors are locked, windows are shut and curtains pulled tightly together.
I now understand why Caroline Smailes referred to it as 'Cinematic'. This is one to watch and I mean that quite literally. I wouldn't be surprised if this book was made into a movie in the next few years.
The main character is most endearingly disturbed. I know such a thing should be impossible but I challenge you to read the book without thinking the same thing...well for the first half of the novel anyway. I blame Nik Jones's skill at luring the reader into initially believing that his main character is simply a diligent worker, confused, obsessive but generally a well intentioned young man.
Eventually his darker side is revealed but by then the reader has already fallen under the spell of his gentle 'mommy's boy' alter ego. By the last chapter he is clearly, irredeemably and unlovabley psychotic. Even then Nik Jones still managed to shock me with the ending to 9987, perhaps I am too gullible or perhaps I'm not. You'll have to buy a copy and make your own mind up.
I dare you to spend an evening in after reading this without making sure your doors are locked, windows are shut and curtains pulled tightly together.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Billy Hunt
Format:Paperback
Couldn't put this book down. Great thriller from a great new writer - the cover is amazing too, showing how dark and gritty the story is. Top marks to Mr Jones.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Soap
Format:Paperback
A fantastic novel for such an inexperienced writer, and you certainly couldn't tell from reading it. 9987 reads like a run away train, gaining speed, getting faster and faster until a manic, climatic ending.
Buy it, Read it, Be horrified...
Buy it, Read it, Be horrified...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Gripping, cinematic, voyeuristic. A delightfully disturbing debut." is what a reviewer has written on the cover, and I couldn't have put it better myself.
This is a truely black comedy. Although essentially it is a story about a man lost in an unfriendly and unhelpful world, it part pychological thriller, part comedy, part tragedy and - possibly - part romance. Although, a scary romance to be sure.
The first person prose and the use of present tense makes for an uncomfortable read sometimes as you sink deeper into the narrators world, but there are so many hidden details and so many visual jokes that you are easily swept along. I don't think I've read a more cinematic novel in some time.
I read this in a day. I couldn't put it down. And, hopefully, it won't be the only thing we see of Jones. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for new releases from him.
This is a truely black comedy. Although essentially it is a story about a man lost in an unfriendly and unhelpful world, it part pychological thriller, part comedy, part tragedy and - possibly - part romance. Although, a scary romance to be sure.
The first person prose and the use of present tense makes for an uncomfortable read sometimes as you sink deeper into the narrators world, but there are so many hidden details and so many visual jokes that you are easily swept along. I don't think I've read a more cinematic novel in some time.
I read this in a day. I couldn't put it down. And, hopefully, it won't be the only thing we see of Jones. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for new releases from him.
By SamX
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Can we have book two yet? I just finished 9987 and now I'm pining. Above me, above everyone, everywhere, kind of pining.
So please can I have book two? Is it out there?
So please can I have book two? Is it out there?
Format:Paperback
From the very first page of this superb debut, I was hooked..
Very dark & disturbing..
You do actually become part of the story..
It really does suck you in..
Shades of Palahniuk & Easton Ellis in there..
That said, highly original..
Recommended to all..
Very dark & disturbing..
You do actually become part of the story..
It really does suck you in..
Shades of Palahniuk & Easton Ellis in there..
That said, highly original..
Recommended to all..
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Reader
Format:Paperback
The description says "cinematic" and cinematic it most definately is. There aren't many books that you picture yourself in from the minute you start reading but this is one of them. You can imagine yourself as a visitor to the DVD store in the book or even as a fly on the wall. Nik's descriptions of the characters are ones that allow you to be part of the story gradually building to a thorough understanding of their lives. Read this and you will understand what I mean - As a debut I am well impressed, I look forward to Nik's next book and hope he gets the recognition for 9987 he deserves.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A terrifying work of genuis
I wasn't sure what I'd make of the novel from the cover and the blurb but it is written so well and with such intensity that I finished it in two days. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2009 by Fran Lyon
5.0 out of 5 stars
A cinematic reading experience
Murky and disturbing - very much so.
Jagged and cinematic - hell yes.
Reading at its best involves leaving yourself, forgetting there is a book in front of you and being... Read more
Jagged and cinematic - hell yes.
Reading at its best involves leaving yourself, forgetting there is a book in front of you and being... Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2009 by V. Gibson
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