I bought this after I saw it in the bargain books section, and thought it looked interesting. I haven't seen the film so had no preconceptions.
Initial impressions were good: the prose is well written and pacy; the dialogue is believable; the characters are interesting; the story is compelling; the scenery is well drawn and vivid, and from the start I couldn't put it down. There's no doubt that, in many ways, this is a fantastic book.
However, this is a 3 star review so there are clearly some failings, too. Chief among these, for me, is the ending: without wishing to give anything away the deus ex machina unraveling of the hero's story left a sour taste in my mouth. Eddie, the narrator and protagonist of the tale, is at the mercy of his circumstances throughout the story, yet he constantly struggles and fights to find a way through everything. He is a driven man, and there are plenty of little hints throughout the telling which point to the way in which the story should have ended. He makes various enemies throughout the story, and one in particular (a Russian - still trying not to give much away!) could easily have become the key character in the story's ending. However, the ending is actually driven by a faceless character who we haven't met before, and is thoroughly disappointing given the driven nature of the story until that point. It reads as though Alan Glynn reached the point where he thought "I've got to finish this now" and he does so rapidly and without buildup. As I've pointed out, there is plenty of drama and buildup in the tale, but the ending doesn't really fit and leaves the hero without option or ability to act.
There are some other issues, too, notably with threads that are left open - did Eddie really commit the crime in the hotel room? - but these are forgivable because of the first-person perspective (if the narrator doesn't know, how can he tell the reader?) and the semi-hallucinatory nature of much of the story. There's also the fact that the story is heavily influenced by Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde, and if you know that tale you'll recognise much of this one despite the thoroughly modern fixtures and fittings.
Having said all that, the story is certainly well written and kept me reading happily right up until the denouement. If it weren't for the ending this would easily have merited four stars: as it is, it's a flawed gem of a story.
