- Paperback
- Publisher: Orion (2 Dec 1999)
- ISBN-10: 0575603003
- ISBN-13: 978-0575603004
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,792,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Computer journalist Georgina Powers, a hard-edged female investigator with a taste for rough sex, is one of the most memorable protagonists in current crime writing. In Phreak, Powers is investigating a phone scam (aka, "phreaking") which involves cloning counterfeit mobile phones. But her contact, Abdul Malik, a leading scam artist in the phone field--and someone with whom Georgina has been enjoying some vigorous couplings--is murdered and dumped in a skip. His neck has been broken, and lipstick smeared on his T-shirt. What's more, her hacker friend and local drug dealer, Chronic, is missing, leaving her the prime suspect. But that's just the beginning: a Bengali protection gang want to know how Abdul was killed, so Georgina is forced to enlist an old friend, East End villain and ex-boxer Tony Levi.
As in her earlier work, Torso, Danks conjures up a dangerous and atmospheric world for her hard, yet honest heroine with a messy sex life, substance abuse issues and techno-genius. The dialogue is delivered with impeccable timing, and the fusion of East End gang violence and cyberspace is handled with real aplomb. Danks also has few equals in creating some of the most indelible images in current crime fiction, such as a character flourishing a pretend firearm:
To the left, to the right, his shoulders jolted with the imaginary force of a recoiling machine-gun. Long red flares of burning tobacco streamed out behind him like the tails of a night kite while his body jerked back and forth and his hair fell over his face. He raised his no-show Kalashnikov aloft, pumping his arms in triumph and then he stopped, just like that, and turned to me, his eyes all craziness and confusion. He waited one speechless moment before he legged it, leaving me alone with the dead body of Abdul Malik.-- Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Computer journalist Georgina Powers is investigating a phone phreaking scam in the East End of London when her contact and toy boy, Abdul, is found dead at the bottom of a skip. And when the police arrive, Georgina is in the frame. Not only do the police want to nail her, but a Bengali protection gang want to know what happened to Abdul. Georgina calls on an old friend, East End villain and ex-boxer Tony Levi, to help out and finds herself in the midst of a gang war in cyberspace and a turf war in real life.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
It's okayish. A bit tame, and a bit cliched given the recent writing of it. But enjoyable none the less. A good intro for a non-techie into techno-crime novels. Not on a level with the ShadowRun series or the William Gibson stuff, but in a comparable genre.
In particular the ending was a bit weak. You suddenly expect there to be a real twist to the story, and then there isn't and it's exactly what you thought the ending was for the last 20 pages.
Format:Paperback
Danks writes very passable noir pastiche. Sometimes she's Chandler and then she's writing the Sweeney but it can be very good. Her similes are sharp and staccato even if rather too numerous. Her heroine is one moment Marlow and the next confessing to you like you're an agony aunt but I liked her, she takes her drink and her beatings well. The atmosphere of London's shabby under-belly is totally real, the techno-speak irrelevant but the simple tale is told well and at times has your heart beating like its being hit with a stick. Well worth a read. Danks has yet to perfect her voice but when she does, she'll have a mega-hit. The girl done good.
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