Schoolboys are disappearing all over Aberystwyth and nobody knows why. Louie Knight, the town's private investigator, soon realizes that it is going to take more than a double ripple from Sospan, the philosopher cum ice-cream seller, to help find out what is happening to these boys and whether or not Lovespoon, the Welsh teacher, Grand Wizard of the Druids and controller of the town, is more than just a sinister bully. And just who was Gwenno Guevara?
Aberystwyth Mon Amour
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Amazon Review
Malcolm Pryce's witty and scabrous comic thriller Aberystwyth Mon Amour is an original and diverting entry into the field of black-comedy writing--a genre which has enjoyed a long and healthy lineage, from Voltaire through Evelyn Waugh to the present day although lately it is pretty well the preserve of crime fiction. Making the unexciting Welsh town of Aberystwyth seem as fascinating and dangerous for his hardboiled 'tec as the mean streets of Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles is a daunting task but it's a trick Pryce pulls off with considerable aplomb.
Throughout Aberystwyth, schoolboys are vanishing without trace, and Louie Knight, the town's only private investigator, becomes involved when he has a visit from the exotic singer Myfanwy Montez (love the name!). She is the star of Wales' most outrageous nightclub, and is keen for Louie to track down her missing cousin, known as Evans the Boot. Aided by such eccentrics as philosopher-cum-ice-cream seller Sospan, Louie finds himself encountering a plot quite as labyrinthine as any which exercised Philip Marlowe. Surely Lovespoon, Grand Wizard of the Druids and the town's most powerful citizen, had a hand in the disappearances?
Nothing is quite as it seems in Pryce's outrageous and irreverent tale, which functions as a canny thriller as much as a wry parody. A good deal of the humour comes from relocating Chandler's sun-baked California locales to a parochial Welsh town, and all the clichés are ruthlessly exploded: Louie is visited in his seedy office by his sultry female client in time-honoured fashion. But it's the language, which leaps off the page, that really marks Pryce out as a stylist of no mean skill, and his bizarre refraction of Marlowe-speak is a real delight:
By the time I reached the whelk stall the drizzle had finally made up its mind and turned into rain, driving forward hard off the sea and into my face. The booth was quiet: no-one there except a kid in charge--a pimply adolescent in a grubby white coat and a silly cardboard hat. I ordered the special and waited, as the youth kept a wary eye on me; trouble was never far away at this time of night.. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Another sparkling debut comes from Malcom Pryce. ... rollicking black comedy...Huge Fan." -- Arena, Graham Grant
"novelist Malcom Pryce has done a brilliant job of deconstructing the private eye novel and throwing the pieces together to come up with this sublime pastiche," -- Books Quarterly
'Original, inventive, ambitious, playful, funny and a million miles away from the current stereotype of the laddish Bloke's First Book' -- INDEPENDENT
'Pryce's book promises to do for the reputation of Aberystwyth what Irvine Welsh has done for Edinburgh' -- Daily Telegraph
'Transposing the ambience of Chandler's noir LA to modern-day Aberystwyth is a surreal idea, but Malcolm Pryce pulls it off ... engaging and sharp' -- FACE
"novelist Malcom Pryce has done a brilliant job of deconstructing the private eye novel and throwing the pieces together to come up with this sublime pastiche," -- Books Quarterly
'Original, inventive, ambitious, playful, funny and a million miles away from the current stereotype of the laddish Bloke's First Book' -- INDEPENDENT
'Pryce's book promises to do for the reputation of Aberystwyth what Irvine Welsh has done for Edinburgh' -- Daily Telegraph
'Transposing the ambience of Chandler's noir LA to modern-day Aberystwyth is a surreal idea, but Malcolm Pryce pulls it off ... engaging and sharp' -- FACE
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 58 people found the following review helpful
By M. Williams
Format:Paperback
Read this book! I did, taking advice from someone rather more trustworthy than I - Philip Pullman, no less, who was asked by a child at the Hay Festival if he ever read anyone else's books, and replied earnestly, yes, he was reading a great one just now - Aberystwyth Mon Amour.
OK, coming from Mid Wales and knowing all the places helps, but even if you didn't this would be just such an enjoyable read. It combines at least three levels of brilliance: it is a breath-takingly funny spoof on Chandler, or maybe even on Mickey Spillane - it gets pleasantly trashy in places. It is also a spoof on Welsh culture, and the wealth of in-jokes there is amazing. Secondly, its very surreal and black comedy cloak a plot which, dammit, is actually quite exciting - I wanted to know whodunnit! And thirdly, there are moments of real tenderness and insight into the deeper aspects of human emotions - love, sex, war, guilt. Oh, and best of all, a totally accurate and identifiable-with perspective on bastard P.E. teachers, may they all rot in hell.
I completely loved it, and read it in just two sittings. A truly remarkable first novel.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
4 stars, fun, light hearted, well written escapism
The first in the Louie Knight series set in a surreal film-noir imagining of 1980s Aberystwyth is a tale of danger, romance(ish) mystery, corruption and the cruelty of PE teachers. Pryce writes well with a silly surrealism akin to the Mighty Boosh or Monty Python, though never too much and never causing the plot to stall. I never got too emotionally invested in the characters or found myself reading late into the night, but I didn't expect or want that from this book.
If you want a serious read, in a realistic setting with hard hitting emotional and moral messages, then this really isn't for you; but if you suspend your disbelief then you'll find a great light read.
The first in the Louie Knight series set in a surreal film-noir imagining of 1980s Aberystwyth is a tale of danger, romance(ish) mystery, corruption and the cruelty of PE teachers. Pryce writes well with a silly surrealism akin to the Mighty Boosh or Monty Python, though never too much and never causing the plot to stall. I never got too emotionally invested in the characters or found myself reading late into the night, but I didn't expect or want that from this book.
If you want a serious read, in a realistic setting with hard hitting emotional and moral messages, then this really isn't for you; but if you suspend your disbelief then you'll find a great light read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
That about describes the book, if you like the quirky genre then defiantly give this ago. It is very easy reading, which allows the mind to wander of into another world, but not puerile fantasy. A fantastic commuter book, entertaining but not deep easy to read on the train.
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good read
Enjoyed reading this book as someone who was born and brought up in Wales but has since left it reminds me of all I miss about Wales really made me smile.
Published 2 months ago by W.D. Kurtz
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny and entertaining
A surreal comedy about a private investigator operating in Aberystwyth. A great take on the detective novel genre, well-worth a read. Read more
Published 3 months ago by David Wistow
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surreal Welsh detective novel
If you haven't read any of the 'Aberystwyth' series, try one. Surreal doesn't really say it. It's a tongue in cheek parallel universe so don't expect the usual detective narrative. Read more
Published 5 months ago by romeolima
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite like Chandler
Interesting book, which I bought because I saw someone reading it on the train and I liked the cover. Read more
Published 5 months ago by D. Klincheva
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aberystwyth Noire - what else
I found this book quite by chance after chatting to someone in a North Oxford cafe. What a pleasant find. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. Brian Parkinson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth the bother
This was a book group choice: not perhaps for everyone, but if you enjoy off beat humour, good use of language and a nice misuse of history, it's for you.
Published 7 months ago by TML SUTCLIFFE
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Read, but ...
The six (so far) Aberystwyth detective stories are highly entertaining, not for the plots, but for the humour, some of it black, and the quality of writing. Read more
Published 8 months ago by D. Zuck
5.0 out of 5 stars
Once more to the welk stall
Better than Last Tango or maybe I was just involved more.
I admit to reading this directly after Last Tango and was amused even more not only by Knight,Myfanwy and a host of... Read more
I admit to reading this directly after Last Tango and was amused even more not only by Knight,Myfanwy and a host of... Read more
Published 9 months ago by bellowsmain
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good reading
First book (of 6)by Malcolm Pryce. Good story, exciting to the end. Funny and well written.
I await to read the other five.
I await to read the other five.
Published 11 months ago by Keith Johnston
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Pryce is Right
Often when a book is set in an original or unlikely area, the writer struggles to find a plot to support their off-beat idea. Read more
Published on 11 May 2011 by JS
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