- Paperback: 237 pages
- Publisher: The Do-Not Press (10 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1899344772
- ISBN-13: 978-1899344772
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 476,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Time Out, November 28th, 2001
Truly great entertainment, permeated with a dark and disturbing strand that'll stay with you long after the final denouement. Treat yourselves.
The Big Issue, October 29th, 2001
Bruen is the finest purveyor of intelligent Brit-noir... his adaptation of US crime classic Sunset Boulevard... is delectably dark and nastily entertaining.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ken Bruen is becoming known for his hard-hitting anti-crime novels and in London Boulevard he takes on the plot of the classic Hollywood movie, Sunset Boulevard, and adapts it to a London setting. There are about three plots going on in this book, all of them expertly handled and there's a cast of characters Dickens would have been proud of. From the minute our anti-hero Mitch steps out of prison, you know it's going to be a cracking novel. THis is Ken Bruen at his very best, and as Taming the Alien was my favourite crime novel of all time, that's really saying something. Superb stuff to give the likes of Pelacanos, Leonard and Ellroy a run for their blood-stained dollar.
Format:Paperback
Ken Bruen seems to write effortlessly with a strong first person voice - the prose flows with great cadence; it's as if it's he's sitting in a pub with you recounting the story over a few drunken pints. In London Boulevard he manages to convey a scene and the essential essence of characters in a few words, enabling the story to fly along. It almost feels like a movie script, which is where I think the book underplays things a little. I found myself wanting to slow things down a little in places and find out more about the back story and relationships between characters or to find out more about a particular bit of the storyline. The plot where it concerns Mitch's re-absorption into the South London underworld and his relationship with his sister is very good, though the plotline concerning his attempt to go straight by working as a handyman doesn't work quite so well given its plot device nature, but it does bring things to a typical Bruen noir ending. There's also a nice use of intertextuality throughout. Overall, Bruen's voice and writing win out to provide an entertaining slice of London noir.
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
After serving three years in prison for an assault he can't remember committing, Mitchell is out and about in London. An old mate sets him up with a flat and a job run by a loan shark and Mitchell gets beat up and finds he isn't crazy about that life. Then he gets set up as a live-in handyman for an ex-actress with money and cars and sex and everything seems to be going great -- except blokes from the loan sharking end have it in for him. Mitchell also has a crazy sister, Bri, and soon meets and falls in love with a beautiful and smart woman, Aisling, who returns his love. But with Mitchell enraging half the folks he meets and the rest turning up dead, both he and the people he loves are soon in danger. Can his increasingly violent methods keep them all alive?
LONDON BOULEVARD is one of the best books I have read this spring. Tough, gritty, written in an almost diary-like style, this is one of the few novels I truly had trouble putting down. I was sitting up in bed at one in the morning thinking, "Just a couple more pages, that's all," and before I knew it a couple more had turned into several more chapters. Ken Bruen has created a sordid tale of love and violence that is criminally easy to read. His characters aren't particularly loveable, but they aren't supposed to be. His pacing, plotting, dialogue all sizzle and leave the reader hungering for more right down to the slam bang finish.
My one complaint with this book, which has nothing to do with the author and his work, is the publishing press's horrible job. Periods are missing, commas and quotes are backwards, at one point a whole ten to twelve line blank chunk has been inserted in the text, the list goes on. I cannot believe a publishing company, even a small one called Do Not, could get away with this sort of mess.
In short, if you like hard boiled, fast paced, and tough talking little novels, LONDON BOULEVARD is a winner I couldn't recommend more highly.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Vice like grip.
I started reading this late on a Monday & finished it on the Wednesday evening. Now, don't get me wrong, I have a busy schedule but this book doesn't let you leave it alone. Read more
Published on 1 July 2007 by Sizzle
Badly in need of an editor
Bruen is a good storyteller but having bought this book on the strength of these five star ratings, I was very disappointed. Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2005 by "relax-economic-sun"
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