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Snow Hill
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Product Description
Review
‘Sanderson is a journalistic boulevardier of great wit and charm, with a gift for the outrageous...The pungent evocation of time and place. London of the 1930s is conjured with immense skill’ Sunday Express
‘Elegant, unpretentious writing, a strong build-up of suspense and the portrayal of a central relationship between Johnny, the hot-shot reporter, and his old school buddy Matt Turner, a policeman from the City’s Snow Hill police station, which is both emotionally believable and intriguing. Snow Hill has undeniable page-turning appeal’ Financial Times
‘Fully polished, fast-paced and thoroughly entertaining’ Daily Mirror ‘Book of the Week’
‘Sanderson has crafted a terrific plot with some wonderful set pieces, and pulls no punches when it comes to graphic descriptions of deviant acts. Snow Hill is clearly well researched, and the author has a great feel for period detail’ Laura Wilson, Guardian
‘Sanderson relishes the louche and smoky milleu where police and press rub shoulders with sexual adventurers and criminals, and he describes it with considerable verve’ Spectator
‘Powerfully atmospheric. A compelling journey into the dark heart of the square mile’ Jake Arnott
‘Elegant, unpretentious writing, a strong build-up of suspense and the portrayal of a central relationship between Johnny, the hot-shot reporter, and his old school buddy Matt Turner, a policeman from the City’s Snow Hill police station, which is both emotionally believable and intriguing. Snow Hill has undeniable page-turning appeal’ Financial Times
‘Fully polished, fast-paced and thoroughly entertaining’ Daily Mirror ‘Book of the Week’
‘Sanderson has crafted a terrific plot with some wonderful set pieces, and pulls no punches when it comes to graphic descriptions of deviant acts. Snow Hill is clearly well researched, and the author has a great feel for period detail’ Laura Wilson, Guardian
‘Sanderson relishes the louche and smoky milleu where police and press rub shoulders with sexual adventurers and criminals, and he describes it with considerable verve’ Spectator
‘Powerfully atmospheric. A compelling journey into the dark heart of the square mile’ Jake Arnott
Product Description
Mark Sanderson does for the 30s what Jake Arnott did for 60s London -- vividly revealing its hidden underworld in an unforgettably gripping crime novel. "Friday, 18 December, 1936. I went to my funeral this morning!" So begins the diary of Johnny Steadman, an ambitious reporter on London's Fleet Street. When he gets a tip-off about a Snow Hill policeman's death he thinks he's found the scoop that will make his career. Trouble is, no-one at the station seems to know anything about it - or they're not telling. Johnny's one lead takes him to the meat market at Smithfield where he encounters violent death close up and personal. Undaunted by this chilling message, his investigation drags him deep into a web of corruption that reaches further than he could ever have imagined. Johnny must risk everything to save his closest friend and expose the ruthless killer at the heart of this dark story. But to bring them to justice he must first go undercover. Six feet undercover. After all, a dead man cannot be tried for murder.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing,
By
This review is from: Snow Hill (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
This book has an excellent opening, a short extract from the main character's diary: "I went to my funeral this morning. I expected more people to be there..." The remainder of the book is narrated in the third person and I am sorry to say that I found it dull, badly written and a real struggle to get through. I don't like writing critical reviews but the deal with Vine is that if you request something you have an obligation to review it, so...
It's a good idea for a story: set in 1936 it features a young reporter looking into murder and its connections to police corruption and homosexuality (illegal then, of course). The trouble is that it is so badly told. For example, at the outset we are clumsily introduced to a cast of deeply unconvincing, stereotypical characters: the boozy journalist, the bullying boss, the troubled PC with a heart of gold, and so on. One is a posh bloke who is a rival reporter to the main protagonist who "tosses his flowing, chestnut locks." Lazy cliché mars the whole book - later someone is actually dragged somewhere "kicking and screaming" - and the prose is dreadfully clunky and downright inappropriate in places. There are irrelevant and tedious reminiscences about childhood scenes which add nothing and slow down an already sluggish narrative, apparently inserted to show how much research the author has done. Characters do implausible things for the flimsiest of reasons, often putting themselves in danger for the sole purpose of setting up a predictable "tense" situation. For example, the protagonist goes to meet his only informant in a dodgy alley at 3.30am. No-one is in the alley when he gets there, but he spots a large, deserted cold-store building with its doors closed but unlocked. He knows people want to silence him, and anyone with a grain of sense would get away from there as fast as possible. I wouldn't dream of giving away plot details, but you may find yourself able to guess what he actually does, what he finds and what happens to him after he's found it. I could go on, but I'm sure you get my drift. I didn't like the book at all and often found myself muttering "oh, for heaven's sake" out of sheer irritation. Other reviewers have clearly enjoyed this book and you should read their reviews before being put off by mine - tastes vary, after all. Apparently it's the first of a trilogy but I certainly shan't be bothering with the next two.
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Snore Hill,
By
This review is from: Snow Hill (Paperback)
Bought this book on the back of a good review in the Daily Telegraph: what a disappointment. "Snow Hill" features one-dimensional characters you can't engage with, woefully anachronistic and hysterically inept dialogue, and a clunky murder mystery that even Scooby and Shaggy would have made light work of solving. A monkey could write a better thriller - in its lunch hour.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Clumsy clunker. Avoid,
By
This review is from: Snow Hill (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
The blurb for Snow Hill promises much, and it gets off to a decent start, but heads rapidly down hill. Very basic writing, flimsy plot, ghastly moments of anachronistic language for a novel which is set in the 1930s.
I expected to love this, because for many years I lived in London's East End and worked in the Smithfield area which is where all the action takes place. But this is a very unrewarding read, full of lame cliche (the main character is 'fiercely ambitious' and that's just the tip of the... you know) and preposterous exposition. (By which I mean the main characters talk their way through the plot turns in order to explain their increasingly idiotic behaviour. It doesn't make sense when they do it, and it certainly doesn't make sense when they ramble on about it for half a chapter afterwards). The characters are poorly drawn and nearly interchangable; the sterotyping of the undertrod working-class lad making himself good and the overbearing upper-class nob having the upper hand is hackneyed (good pun, eh?) beyond belief. Then, just when you've been bored half to death and can't face really continuing, the action descends into a soft porn, boy-on-boy bondage scene. I almost wondered if that segment of the book was there to wake up those readers who'd dozed off. Sorry. Never going to read another book by this author again. It's not-quite-dreadful, which is why it gets two stars (I have read far worse). But I can't recommend it. 3/10
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