One Dead Hen
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.65
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in One Dead Hen for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.65, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The town of Mangel has always been a rough place, but rough turns to nightmarish when headless corpses begin piling up. The police are desperate for a suspect, and Royston Blake, the former pub doorman-turned-recluse is prime for the taking. He’s hauled in for questioning, but to no avail: this is one crime Blake didn’t commit. Yet the interrogation is enough to shake up his paranoid world. He realizes that, instead of hiding from the ills of the world, he should be fighting them. So begins Blake’s quest to score the unlikeliest of jobs for a guy like him: becoming a copper in Mangel. Considering his violent past, everyone—cops, criminals, even his ex-girlfriend—tries to dissuade him. But Blake’s a tenacious bloke, and what better way to convince the naysayers of his crime-fighting skills than to catch the butcher plaguing his town? As per usual, nothing goes according to plan in Blake’s attempt to turn over a new leaf, leaving him to slog through plenty of blood and muck in the deliciously suspenseful fourth installment of Charlie Williams’s darkly comic series.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
By the time I was a few chapters into this book, I was already debating who to lend it to first and imagining how my friends would laugh at certain sections, and I can't really offer more praise than that for a book. Not your usual kind of hero, the main character is dumb, rude, treats women like trash and murders people by accident, but for some reason he's lovable and I not only wanted to find out what would happen to him, but I wanted him to come out all right in the end. If I met Blakey in real life, I wouldn't want to get within three feet of him, but reading about him is different as he's just so funny. If you like Withnail And I [1986] [DVD] then you will like this book too. It could develop quite a following because it's such an unusual book. Here's a small quote or two so you get the idea:
While digging up a shallow grave - 'I sang a song as I worked. The song were 'Whistle While You Work' by Snow White and the Midgets, or whatever. It were a good and happy tune and it kept us going, and the moon sang along too.'
Later, with his girlfriend, Blakey muses - 'I found it amazing how she could talk and have her tit felt at the same time. Me, I couldn't even do two things at once. That's the difference between birds and fellers.'
Now maybe those bits don't sound funny to you, but, as with Withnail and I, the more you get into the spirit of the thing, the funnier it becomes. I didn't award five stars because although the ending is funny and quite tidy in its way, it didn't entirely work for me, but really I think I would give this four and a half stars if I could.
While digging up a shallow grave - 'I sang a song as I worked. The song were 'Whistle While You Work' by Snow White and the Midgets, or whatever. It were a good and happy tune and it kept us going, and the moon sang along too.'
Later, with his girlfriend, Blakey muses - 'I found it amazing how she could talk and have her tit felt at the same time. Me, I couldn't even do two things at once. That's the difference between birds and fellers.'
Now maybe those bits don't sound funny to you, but, as with Withnail and I, the more you get into the spirit of the thing, the funnier it becomes. I didn't award five stars because although the ending is funny and quite tidy in its way, it didn't entirely work for me, but really I think I would give this four and a half stars if I could.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
OK, clearly Charlie Williams Mangel novels aren't for everybody. Several of the reviews here are from people who just don't get it: a novel narrated by someone who hasn't got the least idea what's going on most of the time. It takes a clever author to pull off this trick and, unlike Henry James (who does the same thing in 'What Maisie Knew') also make it brilliantly entertaining. Not just entertaining, laugh out loud funny.
One correction to the positive reviews here - it really doesn't matter what order you read the novels in. As the rave review in the Guardian pointed out, even the narrator can't remember what happens in the previous books! Blakey is a brilliant series character and this is the best plotted of the Mangel books, a satisfying read on every level. I hope there are many more.
One correction to the positive reviews here - it really doesn't matter what order you read the novels in. As the rave review in the Guardian pointed out, even the narrator can't remember what happens in the previous books! Blakey is a brilliant series character and this is the best plotted of the Mangel books, a satisfying read on every level. I hope there are many more.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A serial killer is stalking the shadowy streets of Mangel. Who can stop this killer they call the Reaper? Who is man enough to track him down? Who could possibly take on this beast? What manner of man can contend with this fiend? Step forward Royston Blake Mangel needs your swede on the case. Mangel needs YOU!
One Dead Hen is the first novel I have read by Charlie Williams. I enjoyed the character of Royston Blake immensely. I found the telling of the story from his perspective to be both fun and entertaining. However, this single character perspective did become just a little bit wearing after a while. I enjoyed the added few snippets of journalistic articles at the end of some of the chapters. These helped to break up the story a little. I feel that maybe another perspective mixed into the plot on occasion would have made it a more engaging read.
That said there was ready wit and humour throughout. Unlike some reviewers of this story I did not find the language off putting. It was relevant and in character and added to the humour at times. The character of Blake has a very strong voice and is an interesting well rounded creation. I'm a big fan of Robert Rankin and found some parallels of his Brentford books in One Dead Hen. Overall a very enjoyable read and told in a fairly unique way. I will certainly be reading more by Charlie Williams I can tell that Blake will have me chuckling at every turn.
One Dead Hen is the first novel I have read by Charlie Williams. I enjoyed the character of Royston Blake immensely. I found the telling of the story from his perspective to be both fun and entertaining. However, this single character perspective did become just a little bit wearing after a while. I enjoyed the added few snippets of journalistic articles at the end of some of the chapters. These helped to break up the story a little. I feel that maybe another perspective mixed into the plot on occasion would have made it a more engaging read.
That said there was ready wit and humour throughout. Unlike some reviewers of this story I did not find the language off putting. It was relevant and in character and added to the humour at times. The character of Blake has a very strong voice and is an interesting well rounded creation. I'm a big fan of Robert Rankin and found some parallels of his Brentford books in One Dead Hen. Overall a very enjoyable read and told in a fairly unique way. I will certainly be reading more by Charlie Williams I can tell that Blake will have me chuckling at every turn.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Welcome back to Mangel!
Ever wondered why someone does something 'awful'? Awful to one person may well be totally justifiable to another, especially if your name is Royston Blake. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Emicloke
Overated at One Star
I really do not like giving One Star ratings. This book has been reviewed by several others who absolutely do not share my view and as stated very well by them it may be that "I... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Alec
Disappointing
The blurb for this book is quite intriguing - "The town of Mangel has always been a rough place, but rough turns to nightmarish when headless corpses begin piling up. Read more
Published 7 months ago by T. Walker
laugh out loud
the fact that this is the 4th book of a trilogy should perhaps prepare you for the unexpected. It should also indicate that 3 books was just not enough for fans of the ficticious... Read more
Published 7 months ago by smutters
Murder in Mangel!
This murder mystery centres on character Roysten Blake, a well built, uneducated, rough diamond, who is well intentioned, but a `few cents short of sixpence'. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Sue H
Horribly amusing
I enjoyed this book, the first of Charlie Williams's that I have read. As other reviewers have said, not everyone will agree, but if you share its sense of humour as I did then it... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Sid Nuncius
Royston - What a great anti hero!
Having not read any of the previous books in this series, I was unsure of what to expect. One Dead Hen definitely took me by surprise, but in a good way. Read more
Published 7 months ago by ratscat13
Fantastic
I absolutely love everything that Charlie Williams writes. One Dead Hen never disappoints. Another fantastic book. Very funny. Very good fun. Highly recommended!
Published 8 months ago by AO'C
Blakey's back!
Royston Blake is back...and this time it's, well, not personal as such, more, er, 'ang on, let me shake me swede and get back to ya. Read more
Published 8 months ago by GuiltyConscience
Good story ruined for me
Books that are written in the first person in the words of the narrator can be hard to read, witness the original 'Forest Gump' but they are often worth persisting with. Read more
Published 8 months ago by PJ Rankine
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
