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Review
'A brilliantly dark and menacing tale.' (CATHOLIC HERALD )
'You'll be hard pushed to find a better noir thriller.' (BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH )
'You'll be hard pushed to find a better noir thriller.' (BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH )
Review
'A brilliantly dark and menacing tale.' CATHOLIC HERALD 'You'll be hard pushed to find a better noir thriller.' BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH
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First Sentence
I first met Pauline Delos at one of those substantial parties Earl Janoth liked to give every two or three months, attended by members of the staff, his personal friends, private moguls, and public nobodies, all in haphazard rotation. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I first met Pauline Delos at one of those substantial parties Earl Janoth liked to give every two or three months, attended by members of the staff, his personal friends, private moguls, and public nobodies, all in haphazard rotation. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
The early chapters are a bit confusing, because of the style. Each chapter is from the point of view of that person. Having more than one person is as old as the first mystery writers e.g. Wilkie Collins, but is really unusual. The point someone made about identifying with each character was not important to me. Knowing how they approached the same events was useful. None of the characters are really heroes or villains. It is difficult to be wholly on the side the main character who is clearly without an ethical base and extremely arrogant and self centred.
The plot is not the best I have read, but is clever in the sense of making the reader think. Well worth the read and very different from the typical crime novel where action is more important than thinking through what is really happening.
Good enough to be the basis of two films (I prefer the Ray Milland one to the Kevin Costner).
Read this if you want a book that doesn't have clues and crime scene analysis, but gets you thinking about what people want and how they get it.
The plot is not the best I have read, but is clever in the sense of making the reader think. Well worth the read and very different from the typical crime novel where action is more important than thinking through what is really happening.
Good enough to be the basis of two films (I prefer the Ray Milland one to the Kevin Costner).
Read this if you want a book that doesn't have clues and crime scene analysis, but gets you thinking about what people want and how they get it.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
George Stroud works in an advertising agency cum publishing house in post-War New York. In todays terms we would call him and his colleagues investigative journalists or even paparazzi. George is also quite a sleazeball. He is a womaniser, adulterer, self-obsessed to the point his boss describes him as having 'colossal vanity'. His excuse for a weekend cheating on his wife is, 'I had one of those moods'.
By a cute story twist from Mr Fearing he is set up to investigate a murder where he knows he will 'discover' that he is the patsy. At first sight I struggled to believe such a story could be credible but all credit to the author that this trick is successful.
Although the trick works, I cannot say the same for Mr Fearing's style. A multi-narrator tool is used but to little effect as I struggled to tell the difference between the voices; what was the point of this method? 'The Big Clock' is used as a clunking metaphor for the march of time. This is a shortish read that can be done in one sitting, yet even so the first 40-50 pages could do with a kick up the backside.
He did convey a seedy feel to George and his world. I was taken aback by the 1940's description of his bisexual girl friend as 'a part-time Liz'! Also was Mr Fearing short of proper names; George is married to Georgette and they have a daughter Georgia.
Worth reading for the curiosity of the storyline but fairly low down on the crime thriller food-chain.
By a cute story twist from Mr Fearing he is set up to investigate a murder where he knows he will 'discover' that he is the patsy. At first sight I struggled to believe such a story could be credible but all credit to the author that this trick is successful.
Although the trick works, I cannot say the same for Mr Fearing's style. A multi-narrator tool is used but to little effect as I struggled to tell the difference between the voices; what was the point of this method? 'The Big Clock' is used as a clunking metaphor for the march of time. This is a shortish read that can be done in one sitting, yet even so the first 40-50 pages could do with a kick up the backside.
He did convey a seedy feel to George and his world. I was taken aback by the 1940's description of his bisexual girl friend as 'a part-time Liz'! Also was Mr Fearing short of proper names; George is married to Georgette and they have a daughter Georgia.
Worth reading for the curiosity of the storyline but fairly low down on the crime thriller food-chain.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Chandler described The Big Clock as a 'tour-de-force' and said it made his own work 'look like thirty cents'. If you like Chandler/Hammet/Cain then you should listen to Raymond and give The Big Clock a chance. It is the strangest noir thriller I have read with a powerful theme of the man investigating himself. Kenneth Fearing's disdain for big business and his interests in art and politics (as well as alcohol, adultery and murder) give the book several layers of unusual edge.
A classic from the Forties. Well worth a read.
A classic from the Forties. Well worth a read.
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