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Contract (Paperback)

by Simon Spurrier (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Headline (4 Oct 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0755335902
  • ISBN-13: 978-0755335909
  • Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 397,032 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

SFX magazine

'American Psycho meets Jacob's Ladder, in Islington. If you're
itching for an unflinching, inventive, well-researched stab at British
crime fiction with a horrific twist, CONTRACT will certainly satisfy your
faintly unnatural lusts. Spurrier is very, very good'

Review

'a tour de force' (Times )

'Spurrier is very, very good' (SFX Magazine )
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars love it or loath it?, 30 Mar 2008
It seems this book falls into the love it or loath it category.
I'm afraid that I found the author's voice - which runs very heavily throughout - insufferably smug, way over convinced by its own cleverness and grindingly repetitive.
It also seems that the author feels the need to childishly CAPITALIZE swear words he's particularly pleased with, which makes for embarrassing reading if you're on a packed tube.
The whole affair reads like a six-former attempting to write a Michael Marshall Smith novel. I would suggest reading just about any of his instead.
Judging by the other customer reviews, which I now find baffling, I must be wrong - still I would suggest reading a couple of pages before purchasing to make sure it's for you.
Absolutely top cover design though.
Right, I'm off to clean my palette. Some Jane Austen maybe?
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Mockney Marlowe, 19 Dec 2008
An unusual gritty and grimy little book. Our 'hero' a hitman doesn't dress in a black cat suit, scale the outside of tall buildings, take out the heavy weight guards to burst in on Mr Big and dispatch him with a silenced luger and a sarcy side comment, before making his escape in his speed boat.

No our hero is a rather down at heel operator who rather ends up a hitman after the job at B&Q doesn't really work out. He turns up for his hits in a hired Vauxhall Astra and goes disguised as a Pizza delivery man with a fake moustache and hairy mole! James Bond he most definately aint!

Having set such a mundane and grubby scene the plot then takes a surprising turn into gothic horror with some of the 'hits' coming back to life and even becoming somewhat demonic. Is this real or is it the deranged imaginings of our hero's fragile mind as he struggles with his conscience, his past, the people manipulating him and getting caught up in a battle between good and evil?. Well to a degree you can decide yourself.

I won't say any more about the plot for fear of spoiling it. The writing style however took some of the gloss for me. Spurrier writes the book as the hero might have related it himself were you stuck next to him on a long train journey (Mockney Marlowe). This lends it atmosphere and grittiness but it can be very repeticious and annoying at times and I wish he had written it in the style of the talented author he clearly is.

E.G This is me immitating his style. This is me sat at my lap top sweating. This me trying to be clever and entertaining. This is me.....
You get the picture. It almost felt a bit lazy and it persists through the course of the book and I wish his editor had asked him to stop!

If you can get passed this and the ongoing use of profanities which though numerous were, I felt, in context with the seedy world in which the action takes place, then it is an engaging book with a few twists and turns. A good airport book with a great cover which will look cool when left out on your bedside table!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Contract ? It's very...creative. , 21 Feb 2009
Actually its very hard to describe contract in one word. The main premise itself is nothing new; the life of a contract killer who has Issues(tm).

But that's about as typical as it gets, the rest of the premise is; a...girlfiend?... who may or may not be reporting his activities to the police, his new boss who may or may not be an angel (yeah literally) and his victims who may or may not be coming back to life.

I can see that the ambiguous nature of this book has really annoyed some other reviewers and, while there certainly are some plot threads left dangling and some questions left unanswered, i will say that the majority of of them are satisfyingly dealt with - IF you pay close attention. Especially to Sally's dairy.

The next big gripe seems to be Spurriers odd writing style. It was certainly the first time i had ever read anything like it and after a few seconds of confussion i decided i loved it. Its probably best to click on Look Inside and decide for yourself wether you like it or not.

However even if you do like the writing style then the constant repetition of certain phrases will almost definitely get annoying towards the end of the book. Especially as everything else in the book is starting to get more and more annoyingly surreal.

Yet the best thing about this book is the gritty realism. Spurrier refuses to sugar coat, or hold back, on anything. The swearing is frequent, obscene and stunningly creative. As are the descriptions of peoples brains being blown out of their skulls. As are the worryingly well researched descriptions for building your own silencer, laundering your dirty money, etc.

It would also be criminal of me to neglect mentioning the fact that this book is often side-splittingly hilarious - just so long as you don't mind some very dark black-humour.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Confusing horror detective noir
I have to say that I have read and loved the simping detective and lobster random - comic book format stories by this author. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Duncan Howorth

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting. Hmm. Ok. Huh? What the heck...?
I picked up this novel for two reasons 1) i was familiar with the author's previous work in comics, and 2) the story sounded interesting. And to begin with it was. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Dean Joseph Simons

5.0 out of 5 stars Baffling...But Brilliant
This is one of the strangest yet most absorbing books I've read in a very long time-and as a former employee of a book store, this is rare praise indeed. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2008 by Mr Bond

4.0 out of 5 stars In your face writing
This is not a novel for the faint-hearted.

The subject matter - an assassin whose victims start coming back to life - and the style - a vivid stream of... Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2007 by lmhh

2.0 out of 5 stars Seriously, this is almost a good book...
...Spurrier writes noirish fiction the way it should be written: simultaneously terse but full of gritty detail. Read more
Published on 19 Nov 2007 by Soprano2099

5.0 out of 5 stars A brave and brilliant novel
It might sound silly but this book made me do something I'd NEVER done before... miss my train stop (which I take every day) by two stations. There is good reason for this. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2007 by Michael Cook

5.0 out of 5 stars Borrowed Wisdom maybe... but a Whole New Way of Writing
This book is unlike anything I've ever read. The narrative is amazing and so gripping I had several zombie like days at work after reading way into the early hours. Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2007 by HP

5.0 out of 5 stars Shivers, he's done it!
This book is the best book I have read in the last three decades. Good? It's so good I think they should turf out the Bayeux Tapestry from that museum in France and hang pages... Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2007 by burdock

5.0 out of 5 stars awesome!
Contract is so good I have read it 3 times now, and I am certain I will keep re-reading it. The premise is very fun, but what I found mesmerising was the way the narrative is... Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2007 by Etienne

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